Engineering topics

Roberts, Jennifer

Publications and source records attributed to Roberts, Jennifer.

4 records

NASA NTRS2016

The Alignment and Phasing System for the Thirty Meter Telescope: Risk Mitigation and Status Update

Alignment and Phasing System (APS) is responsible for the optical alignment via starlight of the approximately 12,000 degrees of freedom of the primary, secondary and tertiary mirrors of Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). APS is based on the successful Phasing Camera System (PCS) used to align the Keck Telescopes. Since the successful APS conceptual design in 2007, work has concentrated on risk mitigation, use case generation, and alignment algorithm development and improvement. Much of the risk mitigation effort has centered around development and testing of prototype APS software which will replace the current PCS software used at Keck. We present an updated APS design, example use cases and discuss, in detail, the risk mitigation efforts.

Optical Alignment↗

NASA NTRS2010

Shack-Hartmann Phasing of Segmented Telescopes: Systematic Effects from Lenslet Arrays

The segments in the Keck telescopes are routinely phased using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with sub-apertures that span adjacent segments. However, one potential limitation to the absolute accuracy of this technique is that it relies on a lenslet array (or a single lens plus a prism array) to form the subimages. These optics have the potential to introduce wavefront errors and stray reflections at the subaperture level that will bias the phasing measurement. We present laboratory data to quantify this effect, using measured errors from Keck and two other lenslet arrays. In addition, as part of the design of the Thirty Meter Telescope Alignment and Phasing System we present a preliminary investigation of a lenslet-free approach that relies on Fresnel diffraction to form the subimages at the CCD. Such a technique has several advantages, including the elimination of lenslet aberrations.

segmented mirrors↗

NASA NTRS2005

Testbed for extended-scene Shack-Hartmann and phase retrieval wavefront sensing

We have implemented a testbed to demonstrate wavefront sensing and control on an extended scene using Shack-Hartmann and MGS phase retrieval simultaneously. This dual approach allows for both high sensitivity and high dynamic range wavefront sensing.

Shack-Hartmann↗

NASA NTRS2005

Performance of the optical communication adaptive optics testbed

We describe the current performance of an adaptive optics testbed for optical communication. This adaptive optics system allows for simulation of night and day-time observing on a 1 meter telescope with a 97 actuator deformable mirror.

adaptive optics↗