SBIR-STTR Award

ASTRA will build on its COTS-based, passive optical CubeSat payload designs to investigate technologies to provide detection capabilities of hypersonic gliders. Hypersonic glider characteristics will be provided by our partners in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This Phase I effort will use the modeled temperature characteristics of the gliders and the areal extent of the increased temperatures and match it with COTS hardware to provide detection capabilities during the glide phase of the flight.

Our technology for this AFWERX open topic is a CubeSat payload designed to detect hypersonic gliders, an evolving threat that is more maneuverable and faster than more traditional weapons systems. Using complex fluid dynamics modeling, our team determined the temperature distribution on the surface of a glider and modeled the resulting emissive radiance at the top of the atmosphere. This follow-on Phase II effort will focus on two paths: (1) Integration and assembly of an engineering unit that results from the Phase I design and (2) a continuation of the modeling effort to more thoroughly understand the glider characteristics and the resulting signals and how they propagate through the atmosphere. The engineering unit will allow for hardware development to begin, while the modeling effort will inform future designs.