Design and analysis of segmented-mirror primary mirror system

Abstract

Abstract with the development of space exploration, the resolution of optical system is required to be higher and higher. According to the Rayleigh criterion, the resolution of the optical system is directly proportional to the aperture. However, due to the influence of processing capacity and size of the rocket fairing, it is difficult to achieve one single large aperture. Therefore, the scheme of using small size segmented-mirror to achieve one large aperture becomes an effective form. Because location difference between the deployment and the ideal position, the imaging quality will be affected, and cannot be imaged in serious case. For the analysis of influence of the position error on the imaging quality, the traditional method is to analyze on the optical transfer function and Strehl ratio in theory, ignoring the influence of various aberrations that cannot be corrected by the optical system itself. In this paper, the segmented-mirror primary mirror system model is established to analyze the influence of the position error and the real influence of the various aberrations of the system, so as to complete the analysis of the influence more comprehensively. Through the analysis of different position errors, we can get the final wave-front aberration and Strehl ratio of the system under the influence of position error, which can be used as a reference for the analysis of position error influence of segmented-mirror primary mirror form and sparse aperture form of large aperture optical system in the future.