This Early-stage CIF will produce a formation-flying test bed (FFTB) of a two-spacecraft (one passive, one active) solar coronagraph, increasing this concept from TRL-2 to TRL-4 upon conclusion. The approach is to develop prototype hardware and control algorithms, and test this system at an existing GSFC Sun Simulator facility in Bldg. 21 by the end of July, 2016. Hardware-in-the-loop testing of formation flying control software using actual, planned CubeSat hardware.
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