Compact Astrometric Alignment Sensor and Navigation System for Precision Formation Flying

As a follow-on to CIF19 titled, "Compact Guide Star Sensor for Precision Inertial Alignment", we propose to enhance this sensor prototype by incorporating an additional compact front-end telescope to simultaneously centroid focused light from a laser beacon using same detector assembly, providing an ultra-precise astrometric measurement system in a compact package, the Compact Astrometric Alignment Sensor (CAAS). Dual-spacecraft precision formation flying requires GN&C advances since many of the proposed science and/or technology demonstration missions will perform alignment at milli-arc-sec levels. The CAAS sensor will track a single guide star and laser beacon simultaneously at <30 milli-arc sec (3 sigma) resolution in a compact package for use on small to mid-size science platforms. This astrometric sensor concept will have reduced Size, Weight, and Power and Cost (SWaPC) below the current state-of-art star tracker based technologies, with the potential to achieve performance well beyond diffraction limit. CAAS has ~4x improvement over state-of-the art small-scale sensor (NiSTEX), planned for use in astrometric formation alignment. We propose to develop a fully functional CAAS prototype that will simultaneously track a single guide star for inertial reference and a laser beacon mounted on the opposing spacecraft for bearing measurement to determine relative spacecraft lateral position relative to science target. The objective is to modify the two-axis FGSS prototype to include an additional front-end telescope assembly to simultaneously focus light from a laser beacon mounted on the opposing spacecraft. The work is broken into two overall objectives: 1) Complete CAAS concept, optical design, and characterization to refine sensor design specifications for the prototype CAAS; 2) Design, develop, and preform performance evaluation of a fully-functional two-axis CAAS prototype sensor system with goal 40 milli-arc (3 sigma) astrometric alignment measurement capability). After development and performance characterization of CAAS (modified 2-axis FGSS prototype), we will use the Precision Formation Flying Testbed (PFFT) facility in B. 21 to verify performance in a realistic flight dynamics environment.

Missions requiring precise PFF in Astrophysics / Heliophysics, like the Virtual Telescope for X-Ray Observations (VTXO); Photon Sieve for Heliophysics Imaging (SHARPI)

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