The alignment and isostatic mount bonding technique of the aerospace Cassegrain telescope primary mirror

Abstract

In order to meet both optical performance and structural stiffness requirements of the aerospace Cassegrain telescope, iso-static mount is used as the interface between the primary mirror and the main plate. This article describes the alignment and iso-static mount bonding technique of the primary mirror by assistance of CMM. The design and assembly of mechanical ground support equipment (MGSE) which reduces the deformation of primary mirror by the gravity effect is also presented. The primary mirror adjusting MGSE consists of X-Y linear translation stages, rotation stage and kinematic constrain platform which provides the function of decenter, orientation, tilt and height adjustment of the posture sequentially. After CMM measurement, the radius of curvature, conic constant, decenter and tilt, etc. will be calculated. According to these results, the posture of the mirror will be adjusted to reduce the tilt by the designed MGSE within 0.02 degrees and the distance deviation from the best fitted profile of mirror to main plate shall be less than 0.01 mm. After that, EC 2216 adhesive is used to bond mirror and iso-static mount. During iso-static mount bonding process, CMM is selected to monitor the relative position deviation of the iso-static mount until the adhesive completely cured. After that, the wave front sensors and strain gauges are used to monitor the strain variation while the iso-static mount mounted in the main plate with the screws by the torque wrench. This step is to prevent deformation of the mirror caused from force of the iso-static mount during the mounting process. In the end, the interferometer is used for the optical performance test with +1G and -1G to check the alignment and bonding technique is well or not.

Repositioning and locking method for off-axis optical system using mechanical measurement

“…Lin et al (2011) 4 also used a CMM machine to verify the orientation of the Cassegrain telescope's primary mirror and the orientation adjustment of its mechanical ground support equipment. Lin et al (2012) 5 expanded their previous work by using a CMM to verify the bonding technique of the space telescope. Previously, CMMs had been used mostly in metrology and adjusting the tip and tilt of the on-axis mirror.…”

Alignment and assembly process for primary mirror subsystem of a spaceborne telescope

“…The method is a precise and useful method for aligning mid-size to large optomechanical systems. 5,6 Kihm et al proposed a novel design for adjustable bipod flexures used to mount mirrors and conduct optical experiments on a space telescope. The design reduced the error caused by the gravity effect to less than root mean square 10 nm.…”