Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Basinger, S. A..
State of the art modeling for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph mission are being developed that will combine thermal, structural, and optical modeling in one package. This tool is discussed as well as specific modeling results highlighting the capabilities of integrated modeling for TPF.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Large space optical systems will require on-orbit wavefront sensing and control systems to correct misalignments and figure errors incurred during manufacture, launch and deployment.
The NGST Phase Retrieval Camera (PRC) is a portable wavefront sensor useful for optical testing in high-vibration environments. Primary applications of the PRC are testing and experimenting with NGST technology demonstrator mirrors, along with exploring other wavefront sensing and control problems not easily studied using WCT. An overview of the hardware and testing results will be presented.
This presentation will detail the packaging and hardware chosen for the PRC, the PRC software, and calibration of the instrument.
Through both simulation and hardware experiments, we examine and establish the key data requirements, such as the defocus levels and imagin signal-to noise level, that are necessary to obtain the desired wave front sensing accuracy and bandwidth.