Satellite

Engineering

Aerospace engineering

Materials science

CubeSat

Geology

Physics

Lens (geology)

Optics

Astronomy

Remote sensing

Earth observation

Focal length

Remote Sensing

Launched in March 2021, the 3U CubeSat nanosatellite was the first ever to use an ultra-lightweight harmonic diffractive lens for Earth remote sensing. We describe the CubeSat platform we used; our 10 mm diameter and 70 mm focal length lens synthesis, design, and manufacturing; a custom 3D-printed camera housing built from a zero-thermal-expansion metal alloy; and the on-Earth image post-processing with a convolutional neural network resulting in images comparable in quality to classical refractive optics used for remote sensing before.

First Earth-Imaging CubeSat with Harmonic Diffractive Lens