State-of-the-Art silicon carbide optical telescope assembly for the JMAPS mission

摘要

L-3 Communications IOS-SSG (L-3 SSG) has recently completed development of an ultra low wavefront error and highly stable Silicon Carbide (SiC) optical payload for the Joint Milli-Arcsecond Pathfinder Survey (JMAPS) mission. Selection of SiC as the opto-mechanical material was driven by the JMAPS requirements for extremely low residual optical aberrations and distortion, and state-of-the-art temporal and thermal stability. JMAPS utilizes a passively athermalized design, combining SiC optics with aggressively lightweighted SiC metering structures. The resulting hardware has been optically tested over temperature, demonstrating an exceptionally low and stable system level wavefront error. This exceptional performance, combined with the aggressively lightweighted sinterbonded SiC structures developed result in an instrument which represents the state-of-the-art from the perspective of optical performance and structural efficiency. We will provide an overview of the system, with emphasis on the SiC opto-mechanics, and system level test results.