Paper 14145-203
Paper 14145-203
The TOLIMAN tip-tilt system: high accuracy pointing and stabilisation for astrometry onboard a CubeSat
7 July 2026 • 17:30 - 19:00 CEST | Room B4-M3
Abstract
The TOLIMAN mission aims to detect rocky, habitable-zone planets around nearby binary star systems using a 125mm diameter telescope onboard a 16U spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Achieving the mission’s science goals requires pointing accuracy better than 2 arcseconds and pointing stability below 1 arcsecond per second. This work presents the design of a novel fine-pointing system to meet these strict pointing requirements. The system will utilise piezo actuators to stabilise and correct the pointing of the telescope throughout imaging.
Presenter
Connor J. Langford
The Univ. of Sydney (Australia)
Connor Langford is a second-year engineering PhD student working on the TOLIMAN mission at The University of Sydney. He is currently working on multiple subsystems for the TOLIMAN mission including the piezo-driven tip/tilt system, the active thermal control system and the front plate optics. He has also assisted with manufacturing a phase mask for Baldr: a Zernike wavefront sensor as part of the Asgard suite. In addition, he is an active contributor to the lunar interferometry community.
In 2022, Connor worked for DLR GfR in Germany. DLR GfR are responsible for operating Europe’s Galileo satellite constellation. As a part of his Honours, Connor was responsible for optimising reliability models for the Search and Rescue service. Prior to this he worked for Saber Astronautics to develop capabilities for the National Space Qualification Network.