FalconSAT-7: A Membrane Photon Sieve CubeSat Solar Telescope

We are currently constructing FalconSAT-7 for launch in mid-2014. The low-Earth, 3U CubeSat solar telescope incorporates a 0.2m deployable membrane photon sieve with over 2.5 billion holes. The aim of the experiment is to demonstrate diffraction limited imaging of a collapsible, diffractive primary over a narrow bandwidth. As well as being simpler to manufacture and deploy than curved, polished surfaces, the sheets do not have to be optically flat, greatly reducing many engineering issues. As such, the technology is particularly promising as a means to achieve extremely large optical primaries from compact, lightweight packages.