Space Surveillance Telescope: focus and alignment of a three mirror telescope
Name
Woods-2013-Space Surveillance T.pdf
Size
4.46 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Woods, Deborah Freedman
Shah, Ronak Y.
Johnson, Julie Anne
Szabo, Alexander
Pearce, Eric C.
Lambour, Richard L.
Faccenda, Walter J.
Date Issued
May 2013
Journal
Optical Engineering
Publisher
SPIE
Citation
Woods, Deborah Freedman. “Space Surveillance Telescope: focus and alignment of a three mirror telescope.” Optical Engineering 52, no. 5 (May 1, 2013): 053604.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) is a three-mirror Mersenne-Schmidt telescope with a 3.5 m primary mirror. It is designed to rapidly scan for space objects, particularly along the geosynchronous belt, approximately 36,000 km above the Earth. The SST has an unusually short focal ratio of F/1.0 and employs a camera composed of curved charge-coupled devices to match the telescope’s inherent field curvature. The field-of-view of the system is 6 square degrees. While the unique system design is advantageous for space surveillance capabilities, it presents a challenge to alignment due to an inherently small depth of focus and the additional degrees of freedom introduced with a powered tertiary mirror. The alignment procedure developed for the SST at zenith pointing is discussed, as well as the maintenance of focus and alignment of the system across a range of elevation and temperature conditions. Quantitative performance metrics demonstrate the success of the system alignment during the telescope’s first year of operation.
MIT Department
Lincoln Laboratory
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1117/1.oe.52.5.053604
