Collapsible Space Telescope (CST) for Nanosatellite Imaging and Observation

Nanosatellites have gained broad use within the university and scientific communities for a variety of applications ranging from Space Weather, Space Biology and Astrobiology. There is great interest to develop high-quality nanosatellite imaging applications to support Earth Observations, Astrophysics and Heliophysics Missions. NASA Ames Research Center is developing a low cost, deployable telescope that, when coupled with the appropriate imager, will provide high-resolution imaging for Earth and Space Observations. The collapsible telescope design is a Strain Deployable Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope that can fit within the volume of 1U x 4U portion of a 6U nanosatellite platform. Additional telescope optical prescriptions compatible with the same deployable architecture are being explored. For example, a faster Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain shortens the deployable volume and allows better matching to a slitor integral field unit spectrometer instrument where a modest-sized evenly illuminated field size is a driver. The revised packaging may enable room for field-flattener lenses for imaging applications. Our prototype instrument backend is a remote sensing compact spectropolarimeter with no moving parts, currently under development. The ability to integrate a deployable Cassegrain telescope into a nanosatellite platform matches desires outlined within the TA08 Remote Sensing Instruments/Sensors Technical Area Roadmap and represents game changing technologies in small satellite subsystems to include the potential for swarm missions with distributed apertures.