Paper
6 September 1995 Design for drop-in assembly employed in an off-axis cryogenic telescope for spaceborne applications
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Abstract
OCA Applied Optics has devised and optimized methods for designing, building and testing precision mirror systems whose performance is not compromised by large changes in environmental temperature. A key to our approach is the use of a single material for the construction of all telesope components to minimize the differences in the contraction and expansion of the components with changes in the operating temperature. Specifically, we designed and built a simple, on-axis, monometallic telescope suitable for cryogenic testing in order to investigate and optimize methods for accurately testing the optical performance at cryogenic temperatures. We then designed and built a sophisticated, off-axis monometallic telescope representative of the current technology in advanced spectrometer instruments for deep-space applications. The novel design of this telescope facilitated assembly, alignment, and testing. We characterized the performance of the instrument in both laboratory and cryogenic environmental conditions. The results of these tests show that the instrument focus position and image quality showed negligible change at cryogenic temperatures, compared to a room temperature environment. This research has already contributed to improved performance and reduced cost for advanced reflective optical instruments for several space applications.
© (1995) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Arthur R. Telkamp, Robert J. von Handorf, Steven J. Hoskins, Anthony B. Hull, and Steven A. Macenka "Design for drop-in assembly employed in an off-axis cryogenic telescope for spaceborne applications", Proc. SPIE 2542, Optomechanical and Precision Instrument Design, (6 September 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218674
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KEYWORDS
Telescopes

Cryogenics

Space telescopes

Mirrors

Modulation transfer functions

Optical fabrication

Temperature metrology

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