Holger Jakob

SOFIA observatory performance and characterization

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has recently concluded a set of engineering flights for Observatory performance evaluation. These in-flight opportunities have been viewed as a first comprehensive assessment of the Observatorys performance and will be used to address the development activity that is planned for 2012, as well as to identify additional Observatory upgrades. A series of 8 SOFIA Characterization And Integration flights have been conducted from June to December 2011. The HIPO science instrument in conjunction with the DSI Super Fast Diagnostic Camera (SFDC) have been used to evaluate pointing stability, including the image motion due to rigid-body and flexible-body telescope modes as well as possible aero-optical image motion. We report on recent improvements in pointing stability by using an Active Mass Damper system installed on Telescope Assembly. Measurements and characterization of the shear layer and cavity seeing, as well as image quality evaluation as a function of wavelength have been performed using the HIPO+FLITECAM Science Instrument conguration (FLIPO). A number of additional tests and measurements have targeted basic Observatory capabilities and requirements including, but not limited to, pointing accuracy, chopper evaluation and imager sensitivity. This paper reports on the data collected during these flights and presents current SOFIA Observatory performance and characterization.

Pointing stability and image quality of the SOFIA Airborne Telescope during initial science missions

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is an airborne observatory for astronomical observations at wavelengths ranging from 0.3-1600 µm. It consists of a telescope with an effective aperture of 2.5 m, which is mounted in a heavily modified Boeing 747SP. The aircraft features an open port cavity that gives the telescope an unobstructed view of the sky. Hence the optical system is subject to both aerodynamic loads from airflow entering the cavity, and to inertial loads introduced by motion of the airborne platform. A complex suspension assembly was designed to stabilize the telescope. Detailed end-to-end simulations were performed to estimate image stability based on the mechatronic design, the expected loads, and optical influence parameters. In December 2010 SOFIA entered its operational phase with a series of Early Science flights, which have relaxed image quality requirements compared to the full operations capability. At the same time, those flights are used to characterize image quality and image stability in order to validate models and to optimize systems. Optimization of systems is not based on analytical models, but on models derived from system identification measurements that are performed on the actual hardware both under controlled conditions and operational conditions. This paper discusses recent results from system identification measurements, improvements to image stability, and plans for the further enhancement of the system.

Preparation of the pointing and control system of the SOFIA Airborne Telescope for early science missions

During observation flights the telescope structure of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is subject to disturbance excitations over a wide frequency band. The sources can be separated into two groups: inertial excitation caused by vibration of the airborne platform, and aerodynamic excitation that acts on the telescope assembly (TA) through an open port cavity. These disturbance sources constitute a major difference of SOFIA to other ground based and space observatories and achieving the required pointing accuracy of 1 arcsecond cumulative rms or better below 70 Hz in this environment is driving the design of the TA pointing and control system. In the current design it consists of two parts, the rigid body attitude control system and a feed forward based compensator of flexible TA deformation. This paper discusses the characterization and control system tuning of the as-built system. It is a process that integrates the study of the structural dynamic behavior of the TA, the resulting image motion in the focal plane, and the design and implementation of active control systems. Ground tests, which are performed under controlled experimental conditions, and in-flight characterization tests, both leading up to the early science performance capabilities of the observatory, are addressed.

Simulating SOFIA's image jitter performance and how the results compare to in-flight measurements

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy is an airborne telescope and in full operation since 2014. It has already successfully conducted over 400 flights and can be equipped with eight different science instruments which range from the visible to the far infrared wavelength regime. In order to reach SOFIA’s scientific goals, the telescope has to provide a stable platform with the ambitous image jitter requirements of less than 0.4 ”rms. Such a steady operating environment is especially important for slit spectrometers like EXES (Echelon - Cross - Echelle Spectrograph), that aim to keep the star in the area of a very thin slit for integration. Currently, image motion is mainly caused by deformation and excitation of the telescope structure in a wide range of frequencies. These disturbances are counteracted by the so-called Flexible Body Compensation system which uses a set of accelerometers to estimate the resulting image motion. To better study optimization possibilities of SOFIA’s control system, a simulation tool has been developed which not only implements system identification data and analytically derived models, but also allows the implementation and verification with sensor data from in flight measurements. Results of the simulation as well as in flight measurements will be presented and improvement strategies will be discussed.

SOFIA pointing and chopping: performance and prospect

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.

Pointing and control system performance and improvement strategies for the SOFIA Airborne Telescope

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has already successfully conducted over 300 flights. In its early science phase, SOFIAs pointing requirements and especially the image jitter requirements of less than 1 arcsec rms have driven the design of the control system. Since the first observation flights, the image jitter has been gradually reduced by various control mechanisms. During smooth flight conditions, the current pointing and control system allows us to achieve the standards set for early science on SOFIA. However, the increasing demands on the image size require an image jitter of less than 0.4 arcsec rms during light turbulence to reach SOFIAs scientific goals. The major portion of the remaining image motion is caused by deformation and excitation of the telescope structure in a wide range of frequencies due to aircraft motion and aerodynamic and aeroacoustic effects. Therefore the so-called Flexible Body Compensation system (FBC) is used, a set of fixed-gain filters to counteract the structural bending and deformation. Thorough testing of the current system under various flight conditions has revealed a variety of opportunities for further improvements. The currently applied filters have solely been developed based on a FEM analysis. By implementing the inflight measurements in a simulation and optimization, an improved fixed-gain compensation method was identified. This paper will discuss promising results from various jitter measurements recorded with sampling frequencies of up to 400 Hz using the fast imaging tracking camera.

SOFIA secondary mirror mechanism heavy maintenance and improvements

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.

On sky testing of the SOFIA telescope in preparation for the first science observations

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is an airborne observatory that will study the universe in the infrared spectrum. A Boeing 747-SP aircraft will carry a 2.5 m telescope designed to make sensitive infrared measurements of a wide range of astronomical objects. In 2008, SOFIAs primary mirror was demounted and coated for the first time. After reintegration into the telescope assembly in the aircraft, the alignment of the telescope optics was repeated and successive functional and performance testing of the fully integrated telescope assembly was completed on the ground. The High-speed Imaging Photometer for Occultations (HIPO) was used as a test instrument for aligning the optics and calibrating and tuning the telescopes pointing and control system in preparation for the first science observations in flight. In this paper, we describe the mirror coating process, the subsequent telescope testing campaigns and present the results.