BOULDER, Colo. – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has been awarded a contract to participate in the first CubeSat Mission to leave Earth’s orbit for interplanetary space. Being developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the mission will use Blue Canyon Technologies Thin Slice Star Trackers on dual 3U CubeSats (1U CubeSats are 10cm on each side). The mission called INSPIRE (Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment), will demonstrate functionality, communication, navigation, and payload-hosting in deep space. BCT developed its high performance, micro-sized Star Trackers specifically for use on missions like INSPIRE that use small spacecraft to perform missions traditionally accomplished with larger, more expensive systems. The BCT micro-Star Trackers offer a unique combination of performance and reliability in a miniaturized package, perfect for CubeSat-sized spacecraft.
The INSPIRE project is expected to launch in 2014. (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The BCT Star Trackers will be developed and built at the BCT facilities in Boulder, CO.