Affordable, Maneuvering Cubesat Telescope

CubeSats carrying small space telescopes will be the enabling force for the next generation of space research allowing a less expensive route for professional and amateur astronomers to conduct their research. Quadrus Advanced Manufacturing, LLC (QAM) is pleased to offer an innovative approach in the manufacturing of Cassegrain telescope that minimizes the cost and time of manufacture while enabling the customization of the telescope optics to meet a particular mission’s requirements. Additionally, the design integrates a cold gas aerospike propulsion system into the volume around the telescope tube. Our design uses a high strength, machinable, low CTE polyimide plastic, for the majority of the components minimizing the potential for misalignment issues cause by thermal expansion. Our fabrication process has a high potential for drastic cost and time savings. The Phase I efforts will address the following Spin Forming the Primary Parabolic Mirror out of a Low CTE Polyimide Plastic Designing the Cold Gas Propulsion System Testing a Demo Version of the Cassegrain Telescope

Our commercialization strategy is to position ourselves as a supplier of inexpensive high quality Cassegrain telescopes for CubeSat applications that provide longer service life through an onboard cold gas propulsion system.

The potential non-NASA commercialization opportunities are to make off-the-shelf CubeSat telescope systems that are affordable for academic researchers, graduate students, high schools students, and professional astronomers.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.