From the Next Generation Telescope to Gemini and SOAR

The James Webb Space Telescope Primary Mirror Segment Assemblies (PMSAs) and Secondary Mirror Assembly (SMA) were cleaned at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in January 2018. In order to quantify the effectiveness of the cleaning, the same cleaning process was performed on the PMSA and SMA traveling witness wafers. These wafers have accompanied their respective mirror segments from their arrival at the Goddard Space Flight Center, through transport to JSC, and ultimately their exposure in Chamber A for cryogenic testing. The traveling wafers were analyzed using an Image Analysis automated microscope both prior to and after the cleaning. The resulting data showed that the PMSA wafers’ Percent Area Coverage (PAC) reduced by 83.5% on average, from 0.1524 PAC to 0.0251 PAC. The SMA wafer’s PAC decreased by 97.2%, from 0.1194 PAC to 0.0034 PAC. Further analysis of the particle size bins was completed in order to calculate their particle distribution slopes. The slope of the PMSA wafers increased by 0.025 on average, and the SMA wafer slope increased by 0.066. This indicates that the ratio of large to small particles slightly increased after the cleaning across all mirror segments. Visual inspections of the wafers and the flight PMSAs and SMA showed considerable and comparable particulate coverage improvements, thus leading to the conclusion that the average PAC on the PMSAs and SMA improved by the same factor as their respective wafers.

Collimator is essential to evaluate and assemble the other telescopes. Its diameter should be larger than that of the target telescope for the correct use. We are currently developing the Cassegrain type collimator of which diameter is 0.9 m. The primary mirror is light-weighted so that its weight is only 70 kg. Due to its structure, the primary mirror can be supported only at the backside of the mirror. This mirror is tested with the combination of null Hartmann test and interferometer. The secondary mirror is tested with a Hindle method. This method requires 600 mm high quality spherical mirror. The distance between the primary and secondary mirror is maintained by the Carbon composite material. The assembly of two mirrors is carried out by the computer aided alignment method. The whole structure is designed to maintain the performance of the collimator under +/-5 degrees of temperature variation.

Earth observation satellite with a large mirror telescope has been studied in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to offer a fine ground sampling distance from geostationary orbit. Our latest optical design has a 3.6-m primary mirror and thus aims to obtain a ground sampling distance of sub-10 m from an altitude of 36,000 km at visible wavelengths. To achieve diffraction-limited performance in such optics on orbit, the telescope equips with not only actuators to control primary and secondary mirrors but also a deformable mirror (DM) at the exit pupil plane for the fine phasing. For on-orbit wavefront correction with a deformable mirror, a wavefront sensorless image-based aberration correction scheme is advantageous from the viewpoint of severely limited hardware resources in satellites. Phase diversity (PD) and stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) optimization are known for promising image-based approaches. The former is model-based and thus the estimation accuracy of wavefront aberration significantly depends on the model accuracy, while the other requires many measurements to compensate for large aberration. To alleviate these issues, we propose sequential use of PD and SPGD optimization to efficiently reduce wavefront correction. We first developed an optical testbed with an incoherent light source, a MEMS DM, and extended image targets, and then a wavefront correction experiment was carried out. As a result, the proposed method successfully achieved diffraction-limited imaging performance with a small number of measurements. We will also discuss the image dependence of the wavefront correction performance.

The 60-cm diameter, f/2 DCWS telescope is a modified Ritchey Chretein configuration which collects radiation in three spectral bands, 0.4 to 0.9/micron (visible), 5.0 to 9.0/microns (MWIR), and 9.0 to 12.0 microns (LWIR). The visible and infrared radiation are separated by a dichroic beamsplitter and focused on to separate focal planes; the MWIR and LWIR radiation share a common focal plane with separate detector arrays residing side-by-side. The conic constants of the primary and secondary mirrors are that of a Ritchey Chretein telescope; to improve the image quality at the edges of the field of view, a set of zero power correcting optics have been introduced to each optical train. The Ritchey Chretein telescope is corrected to have zero third order spherical aberration and zero third order coma; the DCWS telescope is further configured such that the positive power in the primary mirror is approximately equal to the negative power in the secondary mirror, resulting in a telescope with very little field curvature.

We have designed a 30 cm cryogenic space infrared telescope for astronomical observation. The telescope is designed to observe in the wavelength range of 0.5~2.1 <TEX>${\mu}m$</TEX>, when it is cooled down to 77 K. The result of the preliminary design of the support structure and support method of the mirror of a 30 cm cryogenic space infrared telescope is shown in this paper. As a Cassegrain prescription, the optical system of a 30 cm cryogenic space infrared telescope has a focal ratio of f/3.1 with a 300 mm primary mirror (M-1) and 113 mm secondary mirror (M-2). The material of the whole structure including mirrors is aluminum alloy (Al6061-T6). Flexures that can withstand random vibration were designed, and it was validated through opto-mechanical analysis that both primary and secondary mirrors, which are assembled in the support structure, meet the requirement of root mean square wavefront error < <TEX>${\lambda}/8$</TEX> for all gravity direction. Additionally, when the M-1 and flexures are assembled by bolts, the effect of thermal stress occurring from a stainless steel bolt when cooled and bolt torque on the M-1 was analyzed.

This is part six of a series describing the ongoing optical modeling activities for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The first two discussed modeling JWST on-orbit performance using wavefront sensitivities to predict line of sight motion induced blur and stability during thermal transients. The third investigates the aberrations resulting from alignment and figure errors after compensation of the controllable degrees of freedom of the observatory (i.e. primary and secondary mirrors). This paper follows the theme of the third, but considers the highly unlikely case where a gross figure error occurs on the secondary mirror. We then compensate for this error using figure control on the primary mirror. The level of compensation as well as the total motions required are evaluated and reported. Impact to image quality over the full field of the observatory is also discussed.

Support structure and optical alignment technology of large-aperture secondary mirror measured by back transmission method

The developing status of large aperture ground-based telescopes is reviewed in this paper.The significance of bigger apertures for telescopes and their main technological approaches are expatiated and the summary on appliance values of modern large aperture telescopes is given.Then,it introduces five kinds of modern typical large telescope systems,which represent the topmost technological level.The key structures and technologies of large telescopes about mount,telescope tubes,primary mirror supports and secondary mirror assemblies are disscussed.Finally,it summarizes the developing trends of the large aperture ground-based telescopes and points out that some of the optical systems in the telescopes have been changed from coaxial systems to off-axial systems,while they are better application prospects.

We derive formulae for all parameters defining the field astigmatism of misaligned two mirror telescopes with arbitrary geometries and with stop positions anywhere on the line connecting the vertices of the two mirrors. The formulae show explicitly the dependence of the field astigmatism on the fundamental design parameters and characteristics of the telescope and on the stop position. Special attention is given to the particular case where such a schiefspiegler has been corrected for coma at the field center. In addition, we study the effects of the practical definition that the center of the field is the center of the adapter. Following a recent paper by McLeod, where the field dependence of astigmatism is used to collimate a Ritchey-Chretien telescope with the stop at the primary mirror, we apply our formulae to the Cassegrain focus of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), where the stop is at the secondary mirror and the telescope is only corrected for spherical aberration. We present measurements of the field astigmatism and discuss the accuracy of the collimation method.

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is one of Extremely large telescopes, which is 25m in diameter featured with two Gregorian secondary mirrors, an adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) and a fast-steering secondary mirror (FSM). The FSM is 3.2 m in diameter and built as seven 1.1 m diameter circular segments conjugated 1:1 to the seven 8.4m segments of the primary. The guiding philosophy in the design of the FSM segment mirror is to minimize development and fabrication risks ensuring a set of secondary mirrors are available on schedule for telescope commissioning and early operations in a seeing limited mode. Each FSM segment contains a tip-tilt capability for fine co-alignment of the telescope subapertures and fast guiding to attenuate telescope wind shake and mount control jitter, thus optimizing the seeing limited performance of the telescope. The final design of the FSM mirror and support system configuration was optimized using finite element analyses and optical performance analyses. The optical surface deformations, image qualities, and structure functions for the gravity print-through cases, thermal gradient effects, and dynamic performances were evaluated. The results indicated that the GMT FSM mirror and its support system will favorably meet the optical performance goals for residual surface error and the FSM surface figure accuracy requirement defined by encircled energy (EE80) in the focal plane. The mirror cell assembly analysis indicated an excellent dynamic stiffness which will support the goal of tip-tilt operation.

In this paper, a novel two-stage dish concentrator (TSD) with a rotary secondary mirror (SM) is presented for solar thermal water/CO2 splitting. An in-house code for ray-tracing simulation of the concentrator was developed and validated. Among all feasible geometries, a hyperboloid with an upper sheet is the most popular option and is widely used as a secondary reflector, which is mainly discussed here. All para-hyperboloid geometric combinations can be categorized into three typical patterns (φ1 &lt; π/2, φ1 = π/2, φ1 &gt; π/2, φ1 = field angle of PM). The initial designs of the TSD, respective to different off-axis levels for each combination, were first designed. Then a new mathematical model was introduced to reshape the SM to reach optimal truncated designs. Finally, a new concept of an off-axis primary mirror (PM) combined with the truncated SM was evaluated by using the in-house ray-tracing code. The results include the optical efficiency, concentration ratio and intercepted radiant flux. The best solutions with the highest optical efficiency fall in the range π/2 ≤ φ1 ≤ (π − arcsin 0.8) rads and 0.4 ≤ NA2 ≤ 0.6 (NA2 = sin φ2, φ2 = field angle of SM), which vary with the concentration ratio and inclination angle.

Recent world events have underscored the need for a satellite based persistent global surveillance capability. To be useful, the satellite must be able to continuously monitor objects the size of a person anywhere on the globe and do so at a low cost. One way to satisfy these requirements involves a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit capable of resolving a spot on the order of 20 cm. To reduce cost of deployment, such a system must be dramatically lighter than a traditional satellite surveillance system with a high spatial resolution. The key to meeting this requirement is a lightweight optics system with a deformable primary and secondary mirrors and an adaptive optic subsystem correction of wavefront distortion. This proposal is concerned with development of MEMS micromirrors for correction of aberrations in the primary mirror and improvement of image quality, thus reducing the optical requirements on the deployable mirrors. To meet this challenge, MEMS micromirrors must meet stringent criteria on their performance in terms of flatness, roughness and resolution of position. Using Sandia's SUMMIT foundry which provides the world's most sophisticated surface MEMS technology as well as novel designs optimized by finite element analysis will meet severe requirements on mirror travel range and accuracy.

ULE<SUP>TM</SUP> titania-silica binary glass is being used for the primary, secondary, and tertiary mirrors for the Subaru 8- meter Japanese National Large Telescope. The primary 8.3- meter mirror blank was made by Corning Incorporated in 1994, and is in the final stages of optical polishing at Contraves Brashear Systems. Corning has also manufactured two of three lightweight secondary mirror blanks to date, and has delivered two lightweight tertiary blanks. These lightweight mirrors were designed and analyzed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Contraves Brashear Systems to meet performance requirements. This paper describes key design criteria for the chopping secondary mirrors, including finite element analysis results. The manufacturing process used by Corning is also described.

The California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) is a joint project of the University of California and the California Institute of Technology to build and operate a 30-meter diameter telescope for research in astronomy at visible and infrared wavelengths. The current optical design calls for a primary, secondary, and tertiary mirror with Ritchey-Chretien foci at two Nasmyth platforms. The primary mirror is a mosaic of 1080 actively stabilized hexagonal segments. This paper summarizes the recent progress on the conceptual design of this telescope.

The Advanced Technology for Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) concept was assessed as one of the NASA Astrophysics Strategic Mission Concepts (ASMC) studies. Herein we discuss the 9.2-meter diameter segmented aperture version and its wavefront sensing and control (WFSC) with regards to coronagraphic detection and spectroscopic characterization of exoplanets. The WFSC would consist of at least two levels of sensing and control: (i) an outer coarser level of sensing and control to phase and control the segments and secondary mirror in a manner similar to the James Webb Space Telescope but operating at higher temporal bandwidth, and (ii) an inner, coronagraphic instrument based, fine level of sensing and control for both amplitude and wavefront errors operating at higher temporal bandwidths. The outer loop would control rigid-body actuators on the primary and secondary mirrors while the inner loop would control one or more segmented deformable mirror to suppress the starlight within the coronagraphic field-of view. Herein we discuss the visible nulling coronagraph (VNC) and the requirements it levies on wavefront sensing and control and show the results of closed-loop simulations to assess performance and evaluate the trade space of system level stability versus control bandwidth.