Optical Design of a Reflecting Telescope for CubeSat

Abstract

Space telescope optics is one of the major parts of any space mission used to observe astronomical targets or the Earth. This kind of space mission typically involves bulky and complex opto-mechanics with a long optical tube, but attempts have been made to observe a target with a small satellite. In this paper, we describe the optical design of a reflecting telescope for use in a CubeSat mission. For this design we adopt the off-axis segmented method for astronomical observation techniques based on a Ritchey-Chretien type telescope. The primary mirror shape is a rectangle with dimensions of 8 cm x 8 cm, and the secondary mirror has dimensions of 2.4 cm x 4.1 cm. The focal ratio is 3 which can yield a 0.383 degree diagonal angle in a 1280 x 800 CMOS color image sensor with a pixel size of 3 mu m x 3 mu m. This optical design can capture a similar to 4 km x similar to 2.3 km area of the earth's surface at 700 km altitude operation.