The fabrication chain for the development of an a focal all aluminum telescope using four anamorphic aspherical mirrors is described. The optical and mechanical design are intended to achieve an enhanced system integration with reduced alignment effort by arranging two optical surfaces monolithically on common mirror bodies. Freeform machining is carried out by a hybrid fabrication approach combining diamond turning and diamond milling in the same machine setup. A direct figure correction of diamond turned aluminum mirrors by magneto-rheological finishing is presented, resulting in high-precision athermal mirror modules with excellent figure properties. The interferometric system test highlights the diffraction limited telescope performance and the feasibility of the chosen approaches for freeform machining and mechanical integration

Aspherical surfaces for imaging or spectroscopy are a centerpiece of high-performance optics. Due to the high alignment sensitivity of aspheric surfaces, reference elements and interfaces with a tight geometrical relation to the mirror are as important as the high quality of the optical surface itself. The developed manufacturing method, which accounts for the shape and also for the position of the mirror surfaces, allows controlling and precisely correcting not only the form, but also the alignment of reference marks, interfaces or even other mirrors in the sub-assembly using diamond turning. For Korsch or TMA telescopes it is also possible to diamond turn whole sub-assemblies containing two or more mirrors with a relative position error as low as the machine precision. Reference elements allow the correction of the shape and position of mirrors as well as the position of interfaces for system integration. The presented method opens up a novel manufacturing strategy to enhance the relative positioning accuracy of optic assemblies by one order of magnitude

Modem telescopes for space applications use complex optical elements like aspheres or freeforms. For the multispectral pushbroom scanner for spaceborne Earth remote sensing the Jena-Optonik GmbH has developed a Jena-Spaceborne-Scanner JSS product line. The optic of JSS-56 imager is realised by a Three-Mirror-Anastigmat (TMA) telescope designed in aluminium [1]. For brilliant pictures, mirrors with high shape accuracy and very smooth surfaces are required. The combination of precise diamond turning and post polishing techniques enables the classical infrared application for the visible and ultra-violet range. A wide variety of complex mirror shapes are feasible. A special new solution for lightweight design was applied. Ultra precise metal mirrors with aspherical surface are developed at the Fraunhofer IOF from design to system integration. This paper summarizes technologies and results for design, fabrication and surface finish of ultra lightweight aspherical metal mirrors for novel TMA telescopes

We report on an ultra-precise manufacturing method of a hyperspectral, mirror based IR-Telescope for applications in the Mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR). The proposed method simplifies the otherwise time consuming system alignment by the use of a snap-together assembly technique, that can be used for rotationally symmetric designs such as Korsch or Three Mirror Anastigmatic (TMA) telescope designs. The proposed technology is based on diamond machining of at least two mirror surfaces on one common substrate in one and the same machine setup. A novel hybrid manufacturing approach, which is a combination of diamond turning and diamond milling is used to manufacture fiducials and mounting planes that reduce the adjustment expenditure significantly. Reference elements and interfaces on the substrates are the basis for a precise metrology of the shape and the position of the optical surfaces as well as for the final assembly of the optical bench. The system integration into a hexapod framework is also based on precisely diamond machined stop surfaces to define the air distance and tilt between the mirrors. The presented method is a novel manufacturing and mounting technology for IR-telescope assemblies with diffraction limited optical performance in the MWIR

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