Extremely Accurate Star Tracker

Tracking and astrometry at high accuracy (tens of milli-arcseconds or better) is possible with compact, lightweight star trackers if the optical system is properly calibrated. Conventional commercial star trackers are made to provide “lost-in-space” star identification in a compact package, but in order to do so, must provide a large field of view. This, along with cost concerns, drives the design of the existing systems in ways that limit their performance to a few arcseconds precision. To significantly enhance the tracking and astrometry performance of such systems, a number of improvements are required. First, the optics must be diffraction limited to achieve a small point spread function (PSF). Next, the PSF must be at least Nyquist sampled by the focal plane array. Third, the focal plane array, particularly the pixel positions must be calibrated. The IERUS Technologies proposes a compact star tracker with astrometric precision using a diffraction limited telescope and a sensor. The calibrated system is anticipated to meet the performance requirements of this solicitation.