Related papers: Laboratory Demonstration of an Active Optics Syste…

CubeSats are small satellites built in standard sizes and form factors, which have been growing in popularity but have thus far been largely ignored within the field of astronomy. When deployed as space-based telescopes, they enable science…

XEUS has been recently selected by ESA for an assessment study. XEUS is a large mission candidate for the Cosmic Vision program, aiming for a launch date as early as 2018. XEUS is a follow-on to ESA's Cornerstone X-Ray Spectroscopy Mission…

AMICal sat, a dedicated 2U cubesat, has been developed, in order to monitor the auroral emissions, with a dedicated imager. It aims to help to reconstruct the low energy electrons fluxes up to 30 keV in Earth auroral regions. It includes an…

This paper presents the setup for empirical validations of the Pair-based Analytical model for Segmented Telescope Imaging from Space (PASTIS) tolerancing model for segmented coronagraphy. We show the hardware configuration of the…

The optics of a number of future X-ray telescopes will have very long focal lengths (10 - 20 m), and will consist of a number of nested/stacked thin, grazing-incidence mirrors. The optical quality characterization of a real mirror can be…

HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Pathfinder mission aims to observe and localize Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and other transients using a constellation of nanosatellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Scheduled for launch in…

The performance of the ultraviolet telescope (UVIT) on-board ASTROSAT is reported. The performance in orbit is also compared with estimates made from the calibrations done on the ground. The sensitivity is found to be within ~15% of the…

Highly ambitious initiatives aspire to propel a miniature spacecraft to a neighboring star within a human generation, leveraging the radiation pressure of lasers for propulsion. One of the main challenges to achieving this enormous feat is…

High intensity laser-plasma interactions produce a wide array of energetic particles and beams with promising applications. Unfortunately, high repetition rate and high average power requirements for many applications are not satisfied by…

Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or silicon in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optical modules…

Vision-based pose estimation plays a crucial role in the autonomous navigation of flight platforms. However, the field of view and spatial resolution of the camera limit pose estimation accuracy. This paper designs a divergent…

The performance of adaptive optics systems is partially dependant on the algorithms used within the real-time control system to compute wavefront slope measurements. We demonstrate use of a matched filter algorithm for the processing of…

Searching for nearby habitable worlds with direct imaging and spectroscopy will require a telescope large enough to provide angular resolution and sensitivity to planets around a significant sample of stars. Segmented telescopes are a…

Axions and axion-like particles are excellent low-mass dark matter candidates. The MADMAX experiment aims to directly detect galactic axions with masses between $40\,\mu{\rm eV}$ and $400\,\mu{\rm eV}$ by using the axion-induced emission of…

Optical beams and starlight distorted by atmospheric turbulence can be corrected with adaptive optics systems to enable efficient coupling into single-mode fibers. Deformable mirrors, used to flatten the wavefront in astronomical…

This paper describes a concept for the high-accuracy absolute calibration of the instrumental polarization introduced by the primary mirror of a large-aperture telescope. This procedure requires a small aperture with polarization…

Direct imaging of exoplanet systems requires the use of coronagraphs to reach high contrast levels (10^-8 to 10^-11) at small angular separations (0.1"). However, the performance of these devices is drastically limited by aberrations (in…

The second Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS-2) CubeSat, which begins its flight in late 2018, builds on the success of MinXSS-1, which flew from 2016-05-16 to 2017-05-06. The science instrument is more advanced -- now capable of…

We have performed an initial stage conceptual design study for the Deep Interior Scanning CubeSat (DISCUS), a tandem 6U CubeSat carrying a bistatic radar as main payload. DISCUS will be operated either as an independent mission or…

The resolution of optical imaging devices is ultimately limited by the diffraction of light. To circumvent this limit, modern super-resolution microscopy techniques employ active interaction with the object by exploiting its optical…