Overview
Building on the concepts introduced in our previous webinar (CubeSat Optical Systems: Design Theory and Multiphysics Workflow Introduction), this technical deep dive will demonstrate how an integrated multiphysics workflow can be used to design, analyze, and optimize CubeSat platforms with demanding optical payload requirements. As mission goals continue to push the limits of small satellite performance, understanding the interaction between thermal environments, structural dynamics, optical performance, and attitude control systems becomes essential for achieving mission success.
Through an extended live demonstration, attendees will follow a representative CubeSat optical payload from concept to performance assessment using Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, Ansys Mechanical, and STAR module. The session will show how environmental loads and spacecraft dynamics propagate through the system and ultimately impact image quality, pointing accuracy, and line-of-sight (LOS) stability. Special focus will be placed on identifying and quantifying the root causes of LOS jitter and optical performance degradation.
Participants will learn how to connect thermal, structural, and optical analyses within a unified digital engineering framework to evaluate design tradeoffs before hardware is built. The live workflow will illustrate how thermal gradients create optical misalignments, how structural vibrations affect pointing performance, and how these effects can be translated directly into system-level optical metrics. Practical modeling methods, best practices, and simulation strategies will be discussed throughout the session.