A General Purpose Astronomy Small Satellite: An approach to low-cost space telescope design using space-qualified ground telescopes
Name
Bosanac-2010-A General Purpose Astronomy Small Satellite An approach to low-cost space telescope design using space-qualified ground telescopes.pdf
Size
447.41 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5170150bbc54c9a3a492a0b18fb036c7
Author(s)
Bosanac, Natasha
Do, Sydney
Wen, Hui Ying
Wicht, Anthony Charles
Date Issued
July 2010
Journal
Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering
Publisher
SPIE
Citation
Natasha Bosanac, Sydney Do, Hui Ying Wen and Anthony Wicht, "A general purpose astronomy small satellite: an approach to low-cost space telescope design using space-qualified ground telescopes", Proc. SPIE 7731, 77311P (2010); doi:10.1117/12.858018 © 2010 SPIE
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The General Purpose Astronomy - Small Satellite (GPA-SS) project studied the feasibility of developing a useful space telescope with a cost to launch below $100 million. An optical telescope assembly (OTA) designed for ground use is proposed for use in a space mission in order to take advantage of the economies of scale in existing mirror fabrication processes. This paper details the additional design, manufacture and test tasks required to flight-qualify the ground telescope. A near-infrared imaging space telescope was costed as a potential mission. Key subsystems were designed at a conceptual level. This design was used both to estimate subsystem costs and to inform the science achievable from a given telescope design. Subsystem costs were estimated from the design through a combination of previously published cost estimating relationships and vendor quotes. This paper concludes that the space-qualification of an existing ground telescope is a potential approach for making significant cost savings when designing a low cost space telescope. Additional work on design and cost estimation around the framework presented in this paper could be undertaken to add certainty to the cost estimate.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.858018
