Astranis Space Technologies

Designed and analyzed critical spacecraft subsystems—balancing structural efficiency and thermal stability for successful orbital deployment

Role

Structures Engineer

Industry

Space

Duration

4 months

Star Tracker System
Star Tracker System
Star Tracker System

Overview:

For Astranis's first production satellite, Arcturus, I owned mechanical and thermal development of the star tracker subsystem.

Overview:

For Astranis's first production satellite, Arcturus, I owned mechanical and thermal development of the star tracker subsystem.

satellite bus
satellite bus
satellite bus
diagram
diagram
diagram

My Role:

As a structures engineer at Astranis, my role focused on developing a system called the Star Tracker that precisely locate the satellites altitude and attitude with two distinct cameras. The assembly consisted of a titanium bracket designed to both resist intense launch loads and thermally isolate the camera from the satellite bus, the cameras and baffles, copper heat straps designed to flexibly connect the camera assembly to the thermal system, a thermoelectric heat pump, and an aluminum radiator.


Key Contributions:

  • Owned full-cycle design and analysis of the star tracker system for Arcturus 1, Astranis’s first production satellite.

  • Developed a custom thermal management system with heat pumps, copper straps, and radiators.


Impact:

The system was assembled on Arcturus 1 and launched to Space on May of 2023, with operation of the Star Tracker system deemed successful via telemetry once in orbit.

Other projects

Zachary Valles

Copyright 2025 by Zachary Valles

Zachary Valles

Copyright 2025 by Zachary Valles

Zachary Valles

Copyright 2025 by Zachary Valles