Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
May 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...210.3309a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society Meeting 210, #33.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.146
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Figure correction by thermal actuation of telescope primary mirrors will be valuable for space telescopes aimed at very high contrast imaging. It is planned that the primary mirror of TOPS (Telescope to Observe Planetary Systems) will be made with this technology. TOPS will use phase induced intensity apodization (PIAA, Guyon et al, 2003-2007) to obtain very high suppression of diffracted light at very close inner working angle. TOPS II, a scaled-up version with a 2 m primary would readily detect earth-like planets in the habitable zone of nearby stars, provided low order wavefront errors are very accurately controlled. This is best done at the primary, to avoid propagation effects.
The correction concept relies on the low but finite thermal expansion of honeycomb mirrors made from fused silica, a material commonly used for precision lightweight space optics. The mirror will be figured for the highest accuracy passive figure. The residual low order errors with likely few nm amplitude will be sensed on-orbit and nulled out by slightly varying the temperature of the back faceplate and individual rib elements. Resistive heating will be balanced in a servo control loop against radiative loss to cold fingers inserted in each honeycomb cell. Preliminary finite element models indicate that, for a mirror with n cells, up to n Zernike modes can be corrected to better than 90% fidelity, with still higher accuracy for the lower modes. For a honeycomb test mirror of borosilicate glass interferometric measurements show a single cell influence function with 300 nm stroke and 5 minute time constant is readily achieved. As the next step, it is planned that full actuation of all cells of a prototype mirror will be undertaken at MSFC, leading toward a 2 m flight demonstrator.
Angel Roger J.
Cuerden Brian
Guyon Olivier
Kang Ting-Ting
Stahl Peter
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