High Radiation Tolerant Star Tracker for Icy Ocean Worlds Exploration

NewBridge Partners, Inc. has developed an innovative, radiation-hard, very high-performance all-reflective optics star tracker deemed HRST (High Radiation Star Tracker). The instrument directly addresses the need for long-life performance in high radiation environments such as Jupiter where current conventional star trackers cannot readily meet the harsh radiation requirements. The design consists of a 3-mirror reflective triplet design form with an additional fold mirror. Additionally, with the inclusion of TRL8 on-board advanced processing algorithms it is readily possible to achieve better than 500 nrad of random star tracker error, rivaling the best performance available in the world today. The size, weight and power are in family with the other star trackers, resulting in an overall very high-performance GNC sensor with outstanding performance, capable of supporting NASA in operating in a high-radiation environment to study icy ocean worlds.