Low-mass high-performance deployable optical baffle for CubeSats

Author

Greenbaum, A. ; Knapp, Matthias ; Schaalman, G. ; Henderson, Tim ; Seager, Sara

Author_Institution

Charles Stark Draper Lab., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

2-9 March 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

12

Abstract

An optical moon baffle for stray light attenuation was developed for use on ExoplanetSat, a 3U CubeSat being developed jointly by MIT and Draper Laboratory which aims to detect transiting exoplanets via precision photometry. This paper will discuss the optical and mechanical design of the baffle, as well as the optical performance as demonstrated through the test of a prototype. The baffle collapses to fit into a small volume around ExoplanetSat´s lens and deploys on orbit to a full length of 12 cm. The baffle is capable of attenuating moonlight by a factor of 105 at a lunar exclusion angle of 30 degrees.

Keywords

Moon; artificial satellites; astronomical photometry; lenses; optical design techniques; optical testing; stray light; 3U CubeSat; CubeSats; ExoplanetSat lens; deployable optical moon baffle; lunar exclusion angle; mechanical design; moonlight attenuation; optical design; precision photometry; stray light attenuation; transiting exoplanet detection; Blades; Detectors; Electron tubes; Lenses; Moon; Optical attenuators; Stray light;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1812-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2013.6496886

Filename

6496886