Francesca Simonetti

AN ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT, LARGE APERTURE, DEPLOYABLE TELESCOPE FOR ADVANCED LIDAR APPLICATIONS

This work presents a new technological concept for large aperture, lightweight, telescopes using thin deployable active mirrors, currently under a feasibility study for spaceborne Lidars. The study is mainly addressed to a DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) at 935.5 nm for the measurement of water vapour profile in atmosphere, to be part of a typical small ESA Earth Observation satellite to be launched with ROCKOT vehicle. A detailed telescope optical design will be presented, including the results of angular and spatial resolution, effective optical aperture and radiometric transmission, optical alignment tolerances, stray-light and baffling. Also the results of a complete thermo-mechanical model will be shown, discussing temporal and thermal stability, deployment technology and performances, overall mass budget, technological and operational risk and system complexity.

LARGE APERTURE AND WIDE FIELD OF VIEW SPACE TELESCOPE FOR THE DETECTION OF ULTRA HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS AND NEUTRINOS

New technologies are proposed for large aperture and wide Field of View (FOV) space telescopes dedicated to detection of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos flux, through observation of fluorescence traces in atmosphere and diffused Cerenkov signals. The presented advanced detection system is a spaceborne LEO telescope, with better performance than ground-based observatories, detecting up to 103 - 104 events/year. Different design approaches are implemented, all with very large FOV and focal surface detectors with sufficient segmentation and time resolution to allow precise reconstructions of the arrival direction. In particular, two Schmidt cameras are suggested as an appropriate solution to match most of the optical and technical requirements: large FOV, low f/#, reduction of stray light, optionally flat focal surface, already proven low-cost construction technologies. Finally, a preliminary proposal of a wideFOV retrofocus catadioptric telescope is explained.

New family of reflective spectrometers

Three kinds of spectrometers based on off-axis Schmidt and Schmidt-Cassegrain cameras are presented; they have been used for several instruments studies, mainly for European Space Agency and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. Both dispersive prism and grating based configurations have interesting characteristics, such as: simplicity, low cost, high efficiency, small volume and weight, very low sensitivity to polarization and great flexibility also in multichannel (wavebands) configurations. The image quality is high, even with low relative apertures and great fields of view, allowing a very good correction of smile and keystone. The compensation of the slit curvature induced by a prism disperser is also demonstrated. This family of spectrometers was the topic of three patents, belonging to Selex-Galileo, while the intellectual property belongs to A. Romali et al.

Schmidt camera correctors for large telescopes

Designing large Schmidt cameras using the polynomial expansion may yield a not-perfect spherical aberration correction. We indicate an alternative method to design the corrector, whose integration in a software package is in progress. The shape of the corrector can be determined with a simple recursive method. The incidence point can also be calculated for any ray, as well as the corresponding unitary vector normal to the surface.

Lightweight active controlled primary mirror technology demonstrator

This paper describes the design, manufacturing and test of a ground demonstrator of an innovative technology able to realize lightweight active controlled space-borne telescope mirror. This analysis is particularly devoted to applications for a large aperture space telescope for advanced LIDAR, but it can be used for any lightweight mirror. For a space-borne telescope the mirror weight is a fundamental parameter to be minimized (less than 15 Kg/m2), while maximizing the optical performances (optical quality better than &lgr;/3). In order to guarantee these results, the best selected solution is a thin glass primary mirror coupled to a stiff CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) panel with a surface active control system. A preliminary design of this lightweight structure highlighted the critical areas that were deeply analyzed by the ground demonstrator: the 1 mm thick mirror survivability on launch and the actuator functional performances with low power consumption. To preserve the mirror glass the Electrostatic Locking technique was developed and is here described. The active optics technique, already widely used for ground based telescopes, consists of a metrology system (wave front sensor, WFS), a control algorithm and a system of actuators to slightly deform the primary mirror and/or displace the secondary, in a closed-loop control system that applies the computed corrections to the mirrors optical errors via actuators. These actuators types are properly designed and tested in order to guarantee satisfactory performances in terms of stroke, force and power consumption. The realized and tested ground demonstrator is a square CFRP structure with a flat mirror on the upper face and an active actuator beneath it. The test campaign demonstrated the technology feasibility and robustness, supporting the next step toward the large and flat surface with several actuators.

Deployable, lightweight and large aperture spaceborne telescope for lidar-based earth observations

This paper describes an innovative approach for a new generation of large aperture, deployable telescopes for advanced space LIDAR applications, using the thin active mirror technology. The overall telescope design is presented with a special attention to the optical performances analysis. The mechanical layout with details of the deployment and baffling technique is shown; the complete satellite thermo-elastic analysis mapping the primary mirror deformation due to the thermal loads is presented; the control system architecture is explained and the optical design including the angular and spatial resolution, effective optical aperture and radiometric transmission, optical alignment tolerances, straylight and baffling is deeply discussed. Finally an overview of different mission profiles that this technology can satisfy is presented; the imaging performances can be achieved using the shown technology tuning the surface control to higher performances.

A technology demonstrator for development of ultra-lightweight, large aperture, deployable telescope for space applications

This work presents the latest results of new technological concepts for large aperture, lightweight telescopes using thin deployable active mirrors. The study is originally addressed to a spaceborne DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) at 935.5 nm for the measurement of water vapour profile in atmosphere, as an output of an ESA contract (whose preliminary results were presented at ICSO 2006). The high versatility of these concepts allows to exploit the presented technology for any project willing to consider large aperture, segmented lightweight telescopes. A possible scientific application is for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays detection through the fluorescence traces in atmosphere and diffused Cerenkov signals observation via a Schmidt-like spaceborne LEO telescope with large aperture, wide Field of View (FOV) and low f/#. A technology demonstrator has been manufactured and tested in order to investigate two project critical areas identified during the preliminary design: the performances of the long-stroke actuators used to implement the mirror active control and the mirror survivability to launch. In particular, this breadboard demonstrates at first that the mirror actuators are able to control with the adequate accuracy the surface shape and to recover a deployment error with their long stroke; secondly, the mirror survivability has been demonstrated using an electrostatic locking between mirror and backplane able to withstand without failure a vibration test representative of the launch environment.

Reflecting telescopes for an orbiting high-resolution camera for Earth observation

This feasibility study compares several optical configurations for an orbiting high-resolution (<1 m) panchromatic push-broom camera. This is an optical subsystem of the CIA (Camera Iperspettrale Avanzata, Advanced Hyperspectral Camera) project, promoted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), aimed at high-resolution imaging for applications in Earth observation, mainly for environmental control, geology (especially volcanoes), and coastal and inland water monitoring. The study includes optics and radiometric analyses, used to select a fan of candidate optical configurations, including all the solutions suitable for the specific task, namely, Ritchey-Chretien with and without relay, Korsch, and Schmidt-Cassegrain on axis, off axis, and with relay. The result of a trade-off analysis, considering not only optical performance but also other aspects such as cost, volume, complexity, and technological criticality, shows that the Korsch configuration is currently the best compromise, and it is potentially able to satisfy all project requirements. However, the other configurations have advantages that may be considered in the whole-mission assessment.

Technological developments for ultra-lightweight, large aperture, deployable mirror for space telescopes

The increasing interest on space telescopes for scientific applications leads to implement the manufacturing technology of the most critical element, i.e. the primary mirror: being more suitable a large aperture, it must be lightweight and deployable. The presented topic was originally addressed to a spaceborne DIAL (Differential Absorption LIDAR) mission operating at 935.5 nm for the measurement of water vapour profile in atmosphere, whose results were presented at ICSO 2006 and 2008. Aim of this paper is to present the latest developments on the main issues related to the fabrication of a breadboard, covering two project critical areas identified during the preliminary studies: the design and performances of the long-stroke actuators used to implement the mirror active control and the mirror survivability to launch via Electrostatic Locking (EL) between mirror and backplane. The described work is developed under the ESA/ESTEC contract No. 22321/09/NL/RA. The lightweight mirror is structured as a central sector surrounded by petals, all of them actively controlled to reach the specified shape after initial deployment and then maintained within specs for the entire mission duration. The presented study concerns: a) testing the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) backplane manufacturing and EL techniques, with production of suitable specimens; b) actuator design optimisation; c) design of the deployment mechanism including a high precision latch; d) the fabrication of thin mirrors mock-ups to validate the fabrication procedure for the large shells. The current activity aims to the construction of an optical breadboard capable of demonstrating the achievement of all these coupled critical aspects: optical quality of the thin shell mirror surface, actuators performances and back-plane - EL subsystem functionality.

A star tracker insensitive to stray light generated by radiation sources close to the field of view

Aim of this work is to propose an innovative star tracker, practically insensitive to the radiation coming from the sun or from other strong planetary sources out of (but near) the Field of View. These sources need to be stopped in some way. The classical solution to reject the unwanted radiation is to place a shadow (or baffle) before the star tracker objective. The shadow size depends on the Field of View and on the minimum angle subtended by the source (i.e. the sun) with respect to the optical axis of the star tracker. The lower is this angle the larger is the shadow. Requests for star trackers able to work with the sun as close as possible to the Field of View are increasing, due to the need of maximum mission flexibility. The innovation of this proposed star tracker is conceived by using spatial filtering with a concept complementary to that of coronagraph for sun corona observation, allowing to drastically reduce the size of the shadow. It can also work close to antennas and other part of the platform, which, when illuminated by the sun, become secondary sources capable to blind the star tracker. This kind of accommodation offers three main advantages: no cumbersome shadows (baffle), maximum flexibility in terms of mission profile, less platform location constraints. This new star sensor concept, dated 2007, is now patent pending. Galileo Avionica (now Selex Galileo) is the owner of the patent.