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Title: CubeSat Format 3-Mirror Spectrometer Designed with Freeform Surfaces
CubeSats are a type of miniaturized satellites that consist of 10×10×10 cm cubic units (1U), which is established as a standard by Jordi Puig-Suari and Robert Twiggs in 1999 to push low-cost educational and industrial space experimentation [1]. In recent years the CubeSat format has gained popularity for research and industrial purposes including Earth imaging, communication and technology demonstration. High performing optical systems such as spectrometers and imagers that can be contained in CubeSat format are also desired in many space missions. In this paper, a design study is conducted for a 3-mirror spectrometer based on the reflective triplet design form that is fully contained in 1U space. As shown in Fig. 1, the spectrometer consists of three mirrors and a plane grating serving as the aperture stop. Light from a slit enters the system and travels through the three mirrors to the grating where it is dispersed and reflected. The light then travels back through the system in reverse to the detector near the slit which results in a 2D image (or spectrum). To show the freeform advantage, we compared two designs of this spectrometer - one designed with freeform surfaces and the other with off-axis aspheres.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1822049 1338877
NSF-PAR ID:
10161176
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Optical Design and Fabrication 2019 (Freeform, OFT)
Issue:
FM4B.3
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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