DeMi

DeMI [Blue Canyon Tech]

DeMi (Deformable Mirror) is a nanosatellite project to test a Deformable Mirror demonstration mission led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation (STAR) Laboratory and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). MIT is providing the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM) instrument for the mission. Aurora Flight Sciences is managing the project and systems integration.

The objective of the DeMi mission is to fly a 6U CubeSat with a wavefront sensor to demonstrate and characterize the operation of a MEMS DM in low Earth orbit (LEO). Deformable mirrors are used to correct both static and dynamic optical aberrations in optical systems, with applications such as improving contrast in astronomical imaging, or in free-space optical communications, for coupling laser light into a single-mode fiber for optical preamplification. The DeMi mission aims to provide on-orbit performance qualification of MEMS deformable mirrors for closed-loop wavefront sensing. DeMi plans to include an internal laser and wavefront sensor for mirror characterization as well as a small telescope to demonstrate closed-loop wavefront control on a star.