Development of a four-band SWIR optical payload for an Earth remote sensing nanosatellite

The goal of this project is to design and develop a SWIR optical payload for an Earth remote sensing satellite. The project uses Maksutov scheme with the aim of achieving 20m GSD at a 600 km low Earth orbit. Optomechanical design of the system is being carried out in order to achieve high precision adjustable assembly of optical elements, with the form factor of the developed payload being 3U (10x10x30cm) for usage in 6U+ CubeSats or microsatellites. The system uses InGaAs detector with an extended range from 1.2 to 2.2µm, with resolution 650x512 of 15µm pixels. The optical instrument is being designed to use 4 SWIR bands with a width greater than 60 nm, while maintaining MTF greater than 0.1 at Nyquist frequency (33 pair lines / mm) at each band. Such an instrument will provide affordable means for monitoring several distinctive environmental phenomena, useful for critical applications such as water management and wildfire prevention. Channel control is intended to be performed mechanically by a system consisting of a hybrid stepper motor, reductor gear train, and a Hall effect sensor. After development, production, and integration stages, the designed instrument and its optomechanical integrity is planned to be verified by functional tests, vibrational tests: low sine sweep, random vibrations, and sine burst, and thermal and outgassing tests in TVAC chamber.