Assembly of a large modular optical telescope (ALMOST)
Name
Miller-2009-Assembly of a large modular optical telescope (ALMOST).pdf
Size
5.29 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b16d97603aa3526f9bb97e61f966aece
Author(s)
Mohan, Swati
Miller, David W.
Budinoff, Jason
Date Issued
July 2008
Journal
Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering; v.7010
Publisher
The International Society for Optical Engineering
Citation
Miller, David W., Swati Mohan, and Jason Budinoff. “Assembly of a Large Modular Optical Telescope (ALMOST).” Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter. Ed. Jacobus M. Oschmann et al. Marseille, France: SPIE, 2008. 70102H-11. © 2008 SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Future space telescope programs need to assess in-space robotic assembly of large apertures at GEO and ESL2 to support ever increasing aperture sizes. Since such large apertures will not fit within a fairing, they must rely on robotic assembly/deployment. Proper assessment requires hardware-in-the-loop testing in a representative environment. Developing, testing, and flight qualifying the myriad of technologies needed to perform such a test is complex and expensive using conventional means. Therefore, the objective of the ALMOST program is to develop a methodology for hardware-in-the-loop assessment of in-space robotic assembly of a telescope under micro-gravity conditions in a more cost-effective and risk-tolerant manner. The approach uses SPHERES, currently operating inside ISS, to demonstrate inspace robotic assembly of a telescope that will phase its primary mirror to optical tolerances to compensate for assembly misalignment. Such a demonstration, exploiting the low cost and risk of SPHERES, will dramatically improve the maturity of the guidance, navigation and control algorithms, as well as the mechanisms and concept of operations, needed to properly assess such a capability.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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
http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.788566
