The European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is a first-of-its-kind project, putting together a range of unique engineering challenges. The performances of its mirror cells are particularly demanding, and their verification has required the development of innovative methodologies. This paper addresses the developed verification methodologies for the most critical performances of the Secondary and Tertiary Mirror Cells (M2 and M3) and the Fifth Mirror Cell (M5). Concerning the monolithic 4-meter class M2 and M3 Cells, that is the maximum surface error (SFE) allowed in operational conditions. The SFE due to manufacturing and integration tolerances is singularly complex to evaluate, and testing is required to ensure compliance of the Cell supports as built. Moreover, such testing must be performed with a non-reflective Dummy Mirror. Hence, a methodology to obtain the SFE from the forces measured on all Mirror supports was developed. The application of uncertainty reduction techniques was essential to obtain reliable conclusions. The M5 Cell supports the largest fast steering mirror (2.7 by 2.2 metres) ever employed in a telescope. The most challenging performances regarding dynamic response are its control bandwidth above 10 Hz, a phase lag below 30 degrees up to 4 Hz, and a cross-coupling below 1% between degrees of freedom. After investigations with an actuator prototype, a method based on application of optimised frequency sweep commands was selected. The test setup was designed to avoid artificial resonant modes, and dedicated postprocessing methods to extract the frequency response were developed. This paper describes in detail the SFE verification methodology for the M2 and M3 Cells, and the tip-tilt capability verification for the M5 Cell. The obtained test results are presented and discussed.
For the ELT, a total of 931 M1 Segment Assemblies will be manufactured. These will be of 133 different types, 7 copies each, with different optical and mechanical properties. The manufacturing of the segment support, the glass blank and the polishing will be done by industrial partners. ESO will be responsible for the shipment of the Segment Assemblies to Chile, for the integration of the edge sensors and their electronics, and for the cleaning and coating. After performing several health- and quality-checks, the Segment Assemblies will be temporarily stored in the warehouse, before being installed at the telescope and eventually recoated around every 2 years. The telescopes and instruments for optical astronomy are usually prototypes, while a new approach is required to manage such a series production of crucial components, which differ in small but significant aspects. In this paper, we will present the processes we have developed to manage the series production of M1 Segment Assemblies for the ELT, starting from the reception of the Segment Assemblies in Chile, inspection, installation of sub-components, health-checks, storage, and installation at the telescope.
The European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) construction1 is advancing and the M2, M3 and M5 cells are running the same path. The M22 and M3 mirrors are 4-meter class Zerodur® meniscus supported axially and laterally by mechanical whiffletrees. To allow low order corrections, axial support is provided with a warping harness system. Additionally, an electromechanical hexapod allows the movement in 5 degrees of freedom to optically align the telescope. The M2 Cell is ending the integration and test phase and approaching to the verification phase, where the highly demanding requirements will be checked. On the other hand, M3 cell is being assembled, taking advantage of the lessons learned during the M2 cell assembly. The M5 mirror is lightweighted silicon carbide elliptical flat mirror of 2.7 x 2.1 m², having the objective of folding the optical beams towards the Nasmyth platforms. Additionally, stabilizes the image movements induced by the telescope mechanisms and wind shaking vibrations. The M5 Cell is divided in two stages: the Tip-tilt and the Alignment Stage. The former allows to perform a fast-steering control while the latter provides active alignment capabilities to cope with the overall telescope structure misalignments The ELT M5 Cell is currently in the final design review, with qualification models for both stages successfully developed and tested. Preliminary results shown submicrometric resolutions for the Alignment Stage and around 5 nanometres for the Tip-Tilt Stage. This paper summarizes the design of the M2, M3 and M5 cells and presents its current development status.
ESO took a systematic approach at earliest phases of the ELT programme to address different aspects of vibration at the telescope, from modelling, error budgeting, requirement specifications, to envisaging verification and mitigation methods. Recent activities focused on measuring and characterizing the vibrational forces generated by typical equipment in the observatory. In addition, the measurements are performed to design and verify the efficiency of the required isolation systems. In this paper, a complete system analysis using these measurement data as input to the detailed model of the telescope structure combined with hosted units, i.e. mirrors, instruments and other equipment, (all at final design phase) is presented. The analysis serves as a verifying tool to observe the actual state of the performance versus the top-level budget. It is also discussed how the results are used for improving the design and envisaging the potential mitigation strategies.
One of the most complex systems of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is the Secondary Mirror Assembly (SMA) providing fast mirror steering capability for image stabilization and infrared square wave chopping. Since its integration in 2002 the performance of the SMM is limited by a strong structural resonance caused by the deformation of a ring-shaped reaction mass. Constraining this resonance would not only lead to a wider actuation bandwidth and therefore a faster transition between the chop positions but also reduce the image jitter introduced by external disturbances acting on the active mechanism itself. Concepts have been developed to attenuate this resonance by structural modifications on the hardware level. To predict the later in-flight performance of these concepts an end-to-end simulation has been setup. The design changes are implemented into a finite element model of the SMA to compute the open loop system response of the mechanism. Subsequently the new dynamic system behavior is implemented into a controller model to simulate the closed loop controlled SMA. Next to the new steering bandwidth, the disturbance rejection capability is analyzed by applying a white noise excitation simulating wind loads and process noise. Moreover, the transition time between the chop positions is determined by applying a square wave input signal to the simulation.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a 2.5m infrared telescope built into a Boeing 747 SP. In 2014 SOFIA reached its Full Operational Capability milestone and nowadays takes off about three times a week to observe the infrared sky from altitudes above most of the atmosphere’s water vapor content. Despite reaching this major milestone the work to improve the observatory’s performance is continuing in many areas. This paper focuses on the telescope’s current pointing and chopping performance and gives an overview over the ongoing and foreseen work to further improve in those two areas. Pointing performance as measured with the fast focal plane camera in flight is presented and based on that data it is elaborated how and in which frequency bands a further reduction of image jitter might be achieved. One contributor to the remaining jitter as well as the major actuator to reduce jitter with frequencies greater than 5 Hz is SOFIA’s Secondary Mirror Assembly (SMA) or Chopper. As-is SMA jitter and chopping performance data as measured in flight is presented as well as recent improvements to the position sensor cabling and calibration and their effect on the SMA’s pointing accuracy. Furthermore a brief description of a laboratory mockup of the SMA is given and the intended use of this mockup to test major hardware changes for further performance improvement is explained.
KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Space telescopes, Telescopes, Actuators, Position sensors, Sensors, Filtering (signal processing), Linear filtering, Data modeling, Amplifiers
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a 2.5m infrared telescope built into a Boeing 747 SP. In 2014 SOFIA reached its Full Operational Capability milestone and nowadays takes off about three times a week to observe the infrared sky from altitudes above most of the atmosphere’s water vapor content. An actively controlled 352mm SiC secondary mirror is used for infrared chopping with peak-to-peak amplitudes of up to 10 arcmin and chop frequencies of up to 20Hz and also as actuator for fast pointing corrections. The Swiss-made Secondary Mirror Mechanism (SMM) is a complex, highly integrated and compact flexure based mechanism that has been performing with remarkable reliability during recent years. Above mentioned capabilities are provided by the Tilt Chopper Mechanism (TCM) which is one of the two stages of the SMM. In addition the SMM is also used to establish a collimated telescope and to adjust the telescope focus depending on the structure’s temperature which ranges from about 40°C at takeoff in Palmdale, CA to about −40◦C in the stratosphere. This is achieved with the Focus Center Mechanism (FCM) which is the base stage of the SMM on which the TCM is situated. Initially the TCM was affected by strong vibrations at about 300 Hz which led to unacceptable image smearing. After some adjustments to the PID-type controller it was finally decided to develop a completely new control algorithm in state space. This pole placement controller matches the closed loop system poles to those of a Bessel filter with a corner frequency of 120 Hz for optimal square wave behavior. To reduce noise present on the position and current sensors and to estimate the velocity a static gain Kalman Filter was designed and implemented. A system inherent delay is incorporated in the Kalman filter design and measures were applied to counteract the actuators’ hysteresis. For better performance over the full operational temperature range and to represent an amplitude dependent non-linearity the underlying model of the Kalman filter adapts in real-time to those two parameters. This highly specialized controller was developed over the course of years and only the final design is introduced here. The main intention of this contribution is to present the currently achieved performance of the SOFIA chopper over the full amplitude, frequency, and temperature range. Therefore a range of data gathered during in-flight tests aboard SOFIA is displayed and explained. The SMM’s three main performance parameters are the transition time between two chop positions, the stability of the Secondary Mirror when exposed to the low pressures, low temperatures, aerodynamic, and aeroacoustic excitations present when the SOFIA observatory operates in the stratosphere at speeds of up to 850 km/h, and finally the closed-loop bandwidth available for fast pointing corrections.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) uses its compact and highly integrated Secondary Mirror Mechanism (SMM) to switch between target positions on the sky in a square wave pattern. This chopping motion excites eigenmodes of the mechanism structure, which limit controller and observatory performance. We present the setup and results of experimental modal tests performed on different building stages of a test-bench model as well as on the original flight hardware. Test results were correlated to simulations employing a finite element model in order to identify excited mode shapes and contributing flexible components of the Secondary Mirror Mechanism. It was possible to isolate the motion of the compensation ring and its elastic mounts as the vibration mode inducing the main disturbance at about 300 Hz, which is currently the main mode shape limiting the performance of the chopping controller.
The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) reached its full operational capability in 2014 and takes off from the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center to explore the universe about three times a week. Maximizing the program's scientific output naturally leaves very little flight time for implementation and test of improved soft- and hardware. Consequently, it is very important to have a comparable test environment and infrastructure to perform troubleshooting, verifications and improvements on ground without interfering with science missions. SOFIA's Secondary Mirror Mechanism is one of the most complex systems of the observatory. In 2012 a first simple laboratory mockup of the mechanism was built to perform basic controller tests in the lower frequency band of up to 50Hz. This was a first step to relocate required engineering tests from the active observatory into the laboratory. However, to test and include accurate filters and damping methods as well as to evaluate hardware modifications a more precise mockup is required that represents the system characteristics over a much larger frequency range. Therefore the mockup has been improved in several steps to a full test environment representing the system dynamics with high accuracy. This new ground equipment allows moving almost the entire secondary mirror test activities away from the observatory. As fast actuator in the optical path, the SMM also plays a major role in SOFIA's pointing stabilization concept. To increase the steering bandwidth, hardware changes are required that ultimately need to be evaluated using the telescope optics. One interesting concept presented in this contribution is the in- stallation of piezo stack actuators between the mirror and the chopping mechanism. First successful baseline tests are presented. An outlook is given about upcoming performance tests of the actively controlled piezo stage with local metrology and optical feedback. To minimize the impact on science time, the laboratory test setup will be expanded with an optical measurement system so that it can be used for the vast majority of testing.
The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) reached its full operational capability in 2014 and completed hundreds of observation flights. Since its installation in 2002, the Secondary Mirror Mechanism was subject to thousands of operating hours equivalent to millions of load cycles. During the aircraft heavy maintenance in fall 2014, a four month time window enabled the removal of the mechanism from the telescope structure for service and improvements. Next to visual corrosion- and crack-inspection of the flexures, critical electronic components (in particular the set of three eddy current position sensors that determine the mirror tilt) were replaced. Moreover, a detailed temperature dependent position calibration of the system was performed in a cold chamber to improve the pointing accuracy. Until then, a simple temperature independent linear gain was used to translate the sensor output voltage into a position. For accurate positioning across the whole temperature range, a temperature dependent correction function had to be developed. This calibration would have cost hours of observing time when performed in flight which made it an essential goal for completion during the maintenance period. An autocollimator was used as optical reference camera to measure the tip-tilt position of the secondary mirror in the cold chamber. Using this calibration setup, a pattern of many mirror positions in the tip-tilt domain was approached at several temperature points to provide a high resolution data set for the new multidimensional calibration function. Follow-up in-flight verification measurements confirmed a large improvement in pointing accuracy as soon as the temperature measurements were included into the position correction. Improvements of up to a factor of 10 were especially noticed in the lower temperature range. This contribution provides an insight into the work performed during the SOFIA - Secondary Mirror Mechanism maintenance with the focus on the temperature dependent position calibration.
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