The role of stray light modeling and analysis in telescope system engineering, performance assessment and risk abatement

摘要

Stray light modeling and analysis play a key role in new technology assessment, system engineering, and the overall performance assessment of telescope/instrument systems under real use conditions. It also is a key tool in risk reduction as stray light problems that appear late in the program are usually severe, expensive to fix, and often compromise final system performance. This paper will review the current stray light software and testing tools of value to the astronomical community and their capabilities/ limitations for general and specialized telescope systems. We will describe the role of stray light analysis in end-to-end modeling and integrated modeling for a number of systems we have analyzed and discuss in detail the stray light modeling and analysis cycle for different types of programs. A key issue is how managers might deal with the issues revealed by an analysis as well as the risks of an incomplete or improperly-timed analysis. The importance of stray light analysis for end-to-end performance assessment and whether such an analysis can reduce life-cycle costs will also be discussed. The paper will use examples from ground and space-based astronomical telescope/instrument systems.