Wavefront tilt feedforward for the formation interferometer testbed (FIT)

Joel F. Shields; Kurt M. Liewer; Udo J. Wehmeier

doi:10.1117/12.459342

26 February 2003 Wavefront tilt feedforward for the formation interferometer testbed (FIT)

Joel F. Shields, Kurt M. Liewer, Udo J. Wehmeier

Proceedings Volume 4852, Interferometry in Space; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459342
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

Separated spacecraft interferometry is a candidate architecture for several future NASA missions. The Formation Interferometer Testbed (FIT) is a ground based testbed dedicated to the validation of this key technology for a formation of two spacecraft. In separated spacecraft interferometry, the residual relative motion of the component spacecraft must be compensated for by articulation of the optical components. In this paper, the design of the FIT interferometer pointing control system is described. This control system is composed of a metrology pointing loop that maintains an optical link between the two spacecraft and two stellar pointing loops for stabilizing the stellar wavefront at both the right and left apertures of the instrument. A novel feedforward algorithm is used to decouple the metrology loop from the left side stellar loop. Experimental results from the testbed are presented that verify this approach and that fully demonstrate the performance of the algorithm.

Citation Download Citation

Joel F. Shields, Kurt M. Liewer, and Udo J. Wehmeier "Wavefront tilt feedforward for the formation interferometer testbed (FIT)", Proc. SPIE 4852, Interferometry in Space, (26 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459342

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