The Delft deployable space telescope project

The following research topics, running at the Delft University of Technology, aim to increase the spatial resolution of Earth Observation systems: 1. Small instruments and sensor development for PocketQubes and CubeSats 2. A Stable Highly Accurate Pointing EO (SHAPE) 6U spacecraft 3. The Stratospheric balloon project Stratocruiser 4. The Delft Deployable Space Telescope (DST) project The focus of this paper is topic 4 which is driven by the need for cheaper, lighter and smaller telescopes imposed by the on-going trend to deliver more refined Earth observation data at a lower price. Evident reasons to incorporate deployable telescope structures are firstly to fit in a launcher and secondly to decrease launch mass and volume. The Deployable Space Telescope (DST), being developed at the Delft University of Technology, aims to reduce volume (> 4 times) and mass (