Did you know that our planet is circled by micro-satellites weighing about one kilo?
Who put them there and what are they for? Well, some have been launched by government agencies. Costing as little as $50,000, most have been put into Earth orbit by university researchers and businesses.
Halma’s photonics development unit, Avo Photonics, is working on an interesting space technology project developing rugged, micro-optic components for space-borne laser beacons.
CubeSats
Our customer is The Aerospace Corporation. They make tiny satellites called CubeSats. These typically measure just 10 x 10 x 10 cm.
Conventional satellites can take up to 10 years to design, build and fly. CubeSats can be designed and launched in just a couple of years. CubeSats are small enough to hitch a ride on a launch rocket carrying heavier payloads. They are a very low cost way of putting scientific instruments and sensors into Earth orbit.
Avo’s contribution is to develop a semiconductor laser illumination light source. This is a 10 watt continuous wave laser designed to run over numerous illumination cycles.
Space Qualified
Avo has well-developed capabilities in so-called ‘space-qualified manufacturing’. It has expertise in very high precision optical alignment, welding and environmental sealing. These are all mission-critical factors for components that must work reliably in the extremes of temperature, vacuum, vibration and shock encountered in spaceflight.
Find our more on the Avo News Blog or watch the video below.
What are CubeSats?
The post Small Satellites Mean Big Business appeared first on Halma Insider.