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arXiv · 2408.06454

TESERACT: Twin Earth SEnsoR Astrophotonic CubesaT

Tyler deLoughery·Clayton Lauzon·Haydn Sims·Wahab Almuhtadi·Ross Cheriton
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Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the viability of CubeSats as an attractive platform for lightweight instrumentation by describing a proof of concept CubeSat that houses an astrophotonic chip for transit spectroscopy-based exoplanet atmosphere gas sensing. The Twin Earth SEnsoR Astrophotonic CubesaT (TESERACT) was designed to house a correlation spectroscopy chip along with an electrical and optical system for operation. We investigate design challenges and considerations in incorporating astrophotonic instrumentation such as component integration, thermal management and optical alignment. This work aims to be a pathfinder for demonstrating that astrophotonic-based CubeSat missions can perform leading edge, targeted science in lower-cost CubeSat platforms.

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Tyler deLoughery, Clayton Lauzon, Haydn Sims, Wahab Almuhtadi, Ross Cheriton. 2024-08-12. TESERACT: Twin Earth SEnsoR Astrophotonic CubesaT. https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.06454

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