STARI fiber-injection prototype testing and simulation

The STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry (STARI) is a NASA-funded joint mission to advance technology for future space interferometry with two 8U cubeSATs to collect/transfer starlight between each other using a single mode fiber. We present a lab proof-of-concept for a two satellite system demonstrating fiber-coupling and simulations for starlight transmission between satellites.The first payload is the Pupil Transport (PT) that collects the incoming starlight and reflects it into the other spacecraft. The second is the Fiber Injection and Detection (FID) that injects the reflected starlight into a single-mode fiber on the other spacecraft and uses itself as a reference. In the lab set-up, we achieve a 20% match to the simulation results for optimal coupling efficiency. This level of coupling efficiency can then be used in future missions to collect meteorology data on stars and exoplanets using formation flying fiber coupled systems.