Optical design of small space rendezvous and docking lens for CubeSat

In order to expand the versatile applications of CubeSat, which rely on autonomous cooperative rendezvous and docking instruments, multiple mother–daughter units are arranged together for on–orbit servicing. In the final approach phase, camera type rendezvous and docking sensors are ideal in designing trajectory with relative attitude measurement between the target and the chaser units for the final approach operations. In the development of space rendezvous and docking cameras for CubeSat, the docking lens must be customized according to the requirements of the appropriate specifications in order to install the small instruments for the final approach phase. Customized design of small space–docking lens should also fulfill the specification requirements of using radiation resistant glass materials and small enough in size. This paper introduces an optical design of the customized space–docking lens to be applied in CubeSat.