Collaborative Research: CubeSat Ideas Lab: VIrtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms (VISORS)

合作研究：CubeSat Ideas Lab：具有可重构群的虚拟超分辨率光学器件 (VISORS)

• 批准号: 1936542
• 负责人: Simone D'Amico
• 金额: $ 23.86万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1936542&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; CubeSat; Ideas; Lab

CubeSats are miniaturized, low-weight, low-cost satellites. Due to these properties, constellations of 10s-100s of CubeSats with specialized instruments for studying the space environment provide a new exciting opportunity to understand and predict space weather. The Virtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms (VISORS) mission supports the advancement of using constellations of CubeSats for space weather through designing, building, and operating three satellites that together form an ultraviolet telescope for observing the Sun. VISORS has a transformative technological approach; it will be the first distributed telescope using several breakthrough technologies, including: novel photon sieve optics, precision formation flying, and 5G-inspired high data rate communications between the spacecraft. The transformative optics utilized by the mission will allow high spatial and temporal observations of nanoflares that are potentially an important source of heating of the solar corona. The VISORS mission supports STEM education and public outreach. Graduate and undergraduate students will actively participate in all mission stages. The project will also develop an open-source software toolkit to support the design and optimization of CubeSat that can be utilized in classrooms. Further, a hands-on demonstration of the virtual telescope will be developed for a science museum exhibit. This project resulted from the Ideas Lab: Cross-cutting Initiative in CubeSat Innovations, an interdisciplinary program supported by Geosciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorates.VISORS will provide a transformational leap in addressing the origins of the processes heating the solar corona by revealing filamentary coronal structures as narrow as 160 milliarcseconds and use the spatial and temporal characteristics of those structures to constrain physical models of nanoflares much more powerfully than the indirect methods used to date. In addition to addressing one of the most fundamental open questions in geospace science, VISORS will validate several breakthrough technologies. The technological innovations range from the demonstration of the first distributed ultraviolet telescope with unprecedented angular resolution, novel photon sieve optics, and CubeSat precision formation flying, to the demonstration of sub-kilometer proximity operations on CubeSat swarms, including low-interference propulsive maneuvers; navigation, control, and autonomy; and 5G-inspired high data-rate inter-CubeSat swarm communication and networking.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

立方体卫星是小型化、轻量、低成本的卫星。由于这些特性，由 10 到 100 个立方体卫星组成的星座以及用于研究空间环境的专用仪器为了解和预测空间天气提供了一个新的令人兴奋的机会。带有可重新配置群的虚拟超分辨率光学器件 (VISORS) 任务通过设计、建造和操作三颗卫星（这三颗卫星一起形成用于观测太阳的紫外线望远镜），支持利用立方体卫星星座进行空间天气研究。 VISORS 拥有变革性的技术方法；它将成为第一个采用多项突破性技术的分布式望远镜，包括：新颖的光子筛光学器件、精确编队飞行以及航天器之间受 5G 启发的高数据速率通信。 该任务使用的变革性光学器件将允许对纳米耀斑进行高空间和时间观测，纳米耀斑可能是日冕的重要加热源。 VISORS 的使命是支持 STEM 教育和公众宣传。 研究生和本科生将积极参与所有任务阶段。该项目还将开发一个开源软件工具包，以支持可在课堂上使用的 CubeSat 的设计和优化。此外，还将为科学博物馆展览开发虚拟望远镜的实践演示。 该项目源自创意实验室：CubeSat Innovations 的跨领域倡议，这是一个由地球科学、工程学、计算机和信息科学与工程理事会支持的跨学科项目。VISORS 将在解决太阳能加热过程的起源方面提供变革性的飞跃通过揭示窄至 160 毫弧秒的丝状日冕结构，并利用这些结构的空间和时间特征来约束纳米耀斑的物理模型，比用于日冕的间接方法更强大 日期。除了解决地球空间科学中最基本的开放问题之一外，VISORS 还将验证多项突破性技术。技术创新包括展示第一台具有前所未有的角分辨率的分布式紫外望远镜、新颖的光子筛光学器件和立方体卫星精确编队飞行，以及立方体卫星群的亚公里近距离操作演示，包括低干扰推进机动；导航、控制和自主；该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。