Wide-field-of-view adaptive optical system for lightweight deployable telescope technologies

Brian K. McComas; Michael A. Cermak; Edward J. Friedman

doi:10.1117/12.459307

7 February 2003 Wide-field-of-view adaptive optical system for lightweight deployable telescope technologies

Brian K. McComas, Michael A. Cermak, Edward J. Friedman

Proceedings Volume 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459307
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

A NASA research contract (NAS1-00116) was awarded to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in January 2000 to study wide field-of-view adaptive optical systems. These systems will be required on future high resolution Earth remote sensing systems that employ large, flexible, lightweight, deployed primary mirrors. The deformations from these primary mirrors will introduce aberrations into the optical system, which must be removed by corrective optics. For economic reasons, these remote sensing systems must have a large field-of-view (a few degrees). Unlike ground-based adaptive optical systems, which have a negligible field-of-view, the adaptive optics on these space-based remote sensing systems will be required to correct for the deformations in the primary mirror over the entire field-of-view. A new error function, which is an enhancement to conventional adaptive optics, for wide field-of-view optical systems will be introduced. This paper will present the goals of the NASA research project and its progress. The initial phase of this research project is a demonstration of the wide field-of-view adaptive optics theory. A breadboard has been designed and built for this purpose. The design and assembly of the breadboard will be presented, along with the final results for this phase of the research project. Finally, this paper will show the applicability of wide field-of-view adaptive optics to space-based astronomical systems.

Citation Download Citation

Brian K. McComas, Michael A. Cermak, and Edward J. Friedman "Wide-field-of-view adaptive optical system for lightweight deployable telescope technologies", Proc. SPIE 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II, (7 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459307

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