Designing high precision pointing systems for balloon-borne telescopes

Stratospheric balloons operate above more than 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere, allowing astronomers to observe colours of light that would otherwise be blocked or blurred by the atmosphere at only a tiny fraction of the cost of an equivalent space telescope. However, it is very challenging to ensure that to telescopes are pointing the right location on the sky when they are suspended from a stratospheric balloon.

In this project the student intern will work with StarSpec Technologies to build and test a pointing system for the Gigapixel-class Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (GigaBIT), a 1.35 meter telescope that will make extremely large and high resolution images of the sky. The student intern will also use their experience building GigaBIT to design pointing control systems that can be applied to StarSpec’s other client balloon telescopes with a wide variety of pointing requirements.

Faculty Supervisor:

Laura Fissel

Student:

Partner:

StarSpec Technologies Inc.

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Queen's University

Program: