Design of an active metal mirror for large space telescopes

Matthias Goy; Claudia Reinlein; Nicholas Devaney; Fiona Kenny; Ramona Eberhardt; Andreas Tünnermann

doi:10.1117/12.2313817

11 July 2018 Design of an active metal mirror for large space telescopes

Matthias Goy, Claudia Reinlein, Nicholas Devaney, Fiona Kenny, Ramona Eberhardt, Andreas Tünnermann

Proceedings Volume 10703, Adaptive Optics Systems VI; 107037A (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2313817
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

Manufacturing telescopes with 4, 8 or 16 meter apertures is the most effective way to gather the light of faint exoplanets or look back towards the Big Bang. However, ultra-high optical quality large mirrors drastically increase the mass of such instruments - if made conventionally. Thinner, and hence lighter, primary mirrors suffer from gravity release, temperature changes and misalignment during launch. The resulting surface distortions as well as inherent surface errors which arise during manufacturing can be reduced by the implementation of active optics. We designed an active metal mirror as a key element for active optics in space. Our goal was to develop an ultra-stable, set-and-forget, lightweight active mirror with good wavefront correction performance. A simulation routine was developed to investigate the dependency between geometric parameters of the Deformable Mirror (DM) and the residual surface error after correction of Zernike modes. With the final 25 actuator mirror design we can achieve residual errors of less than 10 nm RMS for individual Zernike modes for an optical pupil of 103 mm diameter. It is able to withstand quasi-static launch loads, is insensitive to temperature changes and we can limit the overall weight to 2500 g including actuators and mirror mount.

Citation Download Citation

Matthias Goy, Claudia Reinlein, Nicholas Devaney, Fiona Kenny, Ramona Eberhardt, and Andreas Tünnermann "Design of an active metal mirror for large space telescopes", Proc. SPIE 10703, Adaptive Optics Systems VI, 107037A (11 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2313817

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available