Space-Based Computational Imaging Systems

The Alphacore team will develop new advances in onboard processing hardware to enable the Air Force to consider the revolutionary benefits of computational imaging systems for space, e.g., computational imaging systems that combine both optical and computational elements in ways that have the potential to outperform traditional (all-optical) imaging systems. The resulting computational imaging systems will offer several benefits including: 1) Enhanced imaging performance (spatial/temporal/spectral resolution) 2) Significantly shorter development schedule (trivial optical alignment) 3) Expedited calibration (cross-calibration of ubiquitous systems) 4) Drastically reduced size/weight/cost (alternative scaling laws to all-optical systems) 5) Decreased system acquisition time (COTS optics & detectors) 6) New sensor/constellation CONOPS (e.g. on-orbit processing, distributed communications, etc.) The system will be designed to optimize survivability of onboard computational hardware, optical alignment tolerances, susceptibility to spacecraft jitter, practical scaling of optics sizes, and suitability to visible and IR optics/detectors. In Phase I, the Alphacore team will report