US Egypt Cooperative Research: Design and Implementation of Experimental High Resolution Imaging Payload System for Nano Satellites

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1103969 This project supports a cooperative research project by Dr. Magdy Bayoumi, The Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA and Dr. Amal Zaki, National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS), Cairo, Egypt. They plan to study the Design and Implementation of Experimental High Resolution Imaging Payload System for Nanosatelite. At present, access to Space is limited to some entities; and launching a satellite into orbit is very expensive. Minimizing this cost and making space accessible to scientific and research societies could be reached by design and fabrication of Nano satellite such as the Cubesats. A Cubesat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a volume of exactly of 10cm x10cm x10cm, with a total mass in the order of 1Kg. CubeSat is made from off the shelf components COTS, which is considered as an advantage that makes development much easier, compared to classical satellite development. On the other hand, this limits the final specifications to those of the components available in market. For instance, the final Ground Sample Distance (GSD) is limited by the available commercial imaging systems, which usually do not meet dimensions and resolution requirements simultaneously. A better GSD can be achieved if a costumed optical design is adopted rather than choosing from off the shelf components. Intellectual Merits: This project will address several challenges that have not been solved efficiently, yet, in designing Micro and Nano satellites, such as limited space, limited performance, and strict requirements of ultra low energy. Solutions to several technical issues will be devices for the first time such as; hardware-software co-design for very low power systems where low power will be the major performance measure. The Technical issues of integrating different technologies; microelectronics, optics, and mechanical will be addressed. Embedded software challenges will be solved. Low power design for UHF/VHF communication systems will be developed which is not straight forward design. The specific application problems of image optics, image sensor, and IP unit will be solved for the imaging payload module. The partners in both institutions have a very strong track record in the proposed field of study. The objectives are clearly stated and are feasible to achieve.Broader Impacts: The main goal of the collaboration is to focus on the exchange of innovative technologies, which involves design and fabrication of optical, electronics and embedded systems for Nano satellite and space application such as earth observation. This will help both U.S and Egypt in establishing space technology and its applications in our respective institutes. The US team will have an access to an application platform where they can experiment all the novel developed technologies, algorithms, architectures, circuits, and embedded software. The Egyptian team will have an access to the latest research results in optics, microelectronics, UHF/VHF communication systems. Bringing low cost satellite technology to Egypt is a useful effort. There will be training for US and Egyptian students in this international cooperation. This proposal is supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program where NSF supports the US side and the Government of Egypt funds the Egyptian side.