Compact Monolithic Star Tracker System

doi:10.3390/opt7020025

Compact Monolithic Star Tracker System

2026-03-01

0

PRE

AI

DOI：10.3390/opt7020025

Original

Original request for help

Save

Abstract

En 中文

A compact, low-cost star tracker system tailored for small satellite applications was designed and prototyped. The system was designed with a fast f/1.2 aperture, a 20 & times; 13 degrees field of view, and a theoretical angular resolution of 10 arcs-sufficient for the determination of attitude and orbit of a satellite. The optical design is based on a monolithic Maksutov-Cassegrain architecture, with lens assemblies fabricated from CR39 or PMMA to eliminate collimation requirements and improve vibration resistance. The lens was machined using Single-Point Diamond Turning to a precision better than lambda/14. It was coated with a multilayer antireflective and highly reflective coatings applied via magnetron sputtering to reduce stray reflections and improve light throughput. The housing was produced using electron beam powder-bed fusion with Ti-64 alloy, while the use of commercial imaging sensors minimizes overall cost. Prototype testing confirmed to plate-solve star patterns with precision better than 27 arcs at 100 ms imaging time across all analysed images.

Keywords:

star tracker

monolithic lens

optical coatings

additive manufacturing

Compact Monolithic Star Tracker System

Abstract

Journal

Organization