Diamond-turned lightweight athermal visible TMA telescope for the planned New Horizons Mission to Pluto

M. J. Hegge; J. W. Baer; L. M. R. Hardaway; G. Taudien; D. S. Sabatke; S. R. Shidemantle; J. J. Santman; L. E. Comstock

doi:10.1117/12.617018

30 August 2005 Diamond turned, light weight, athermal, visible TMA telescope for the planned New Horizons mission to Pluto

M. J. Hegge, J. W. Baer, L. M. R. Hardaway, G. Taudien, D. S. Sabatke, S. R. Shidemantle, J. J. Santman, L. E. Comstock

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5877, Optomechanics 2005; 58770K (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.617018
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Unpolished diamond turned mirrors are common for infrared systems. We report the successful use of unpolished mirrors in a visible spectrum, all aluminum telescope for the planned New Horizons mission to Pluto. The Ralph telescope is an F/8.7 Three Mirror Anastigmat with a 75mm aperture, a 5.7° by 1.0° field of view, and a mass of only 8kg. Key to the performance of the system are a process for reducing the micro-roughness of the off-axis aspheric surfaces to below 60 Ångstroms RMS, and the fabrication of precision diamond turned mounting features on the mirrors and one-piece, thin-walled housing. The telescope achieves nearly diffraction-limited performance with minimal post-assembly alignment, and maintains that performance, including focus, over a wide range about the operating temperature of 210K.

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M. J. Hegge, J. W. Baer, L. M. R. Hardaway, G. Taudien, D. S. Sabatke, S. R. Shidemantle, J. J. Santman, and L. E. Comstock "Diamond turned, light weight, athermal, visible TMA telescope for the planned New Horizons mission to Pluto", Proc. SPIE 5877, Optomechanics 2005, 58770K (30 August 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.617018

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