Tiny Telescope: Monolithic Diffraction-Limited Imaging

The Tiny Telescope is a compact, fully integrated monolithic telescope, designed to address the stringent volume, mass, and alignment constraints of small satellite missions. By integrating refractive and reflective optical surfaces, internal baffles, and structural features within a single optical element, the Tiny Telescope eliminates the need for complex multi-element assemblies and post-integration alignment. This architecture results in a highly compact imaging payload, with increased mechanical robustness and improved thermal stability.

Recent advances in optical fabrication technologies make it now possible to manufacture such monolithic telescopes with the precision required for space applications and with a scalability compatible with series production. This capability enables new mission concepts for Earth observation from Low Earth Orbit, where compact payloads integrated on CubeSat (or even picosat) platforms can achieve ground spatial resolutions on the order of several meters, consistent with diffraction-limited optical performance. The same architecture is applicable to airborne platforms, with unmanned aerial vehicle deployments enabling millimeter-range spatial resolution imaging at distances of several hundred meters.

Optical simulations show that the diffraction-limited performance can be achieved across the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared spectral ranges, enabling the Tiny Telescope to be integrated with multispectral and hyperspectral instruments on small satellite missions.