Paper
7 September 2006 Optical instruments heading in a new direction
Johan Leijtens, Wouter Jan Ubbels
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Micro systems technology allows building ever-smaller systems. This has lead to many activities all over the world that are focused on building micro- and nano satellites. Most of these satellites are seen as technology qualifiers, meaning that they are used to prove that the developed technology can be used on board of spacecraft and can survive the launch environment. At this moment in time there is so much technology available and under development that one can start to think about building mature satellites on a micro scale (mature in the sense that the satellite can perform a scientifically or socially significant function). For satellites with an optical payload, a minimum aperture and baffle size are required, thus setting a minimum size for the satellite. The overall size of the satellite can be reduced by building the satellite around the instrument instead of building an instrument that is put on top of a satellite bus.
© (2006) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Johan Leijtens and Wouter Jan Ubbels "Optical instruments heading in a new direction", Proc. SPIE 6296, Earth Observing Systems XI, 629616 (7 September 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.677512
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KEYWORDS
Satellites

Sensors

Space operations

Signal to noise ratio

Electronics

Aerospace engineering

Solar cells

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