Microprecision interferometer: pointing system solutions for on-orbit disturbance environment

Frank G. Dekens; Gregory W. Neat

doi:10.1117/12.388841

22 June 2000 Microprecision interferometer: pointing system solutions for on-orbit disturbance environment

Frank G. Dekens, Gregory W. Neat

Proceedings Volume 3985, Smart Structures and Materials 2000: Smart Structures and Integrated Systems; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.388841
Event: SPIE's 7th Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, 2000, Newport Beach, CA, United States

Abstract

The Space Interferometer Mission (SIM) is required to point each arm of its science interferometer to better than 30 milli-arcseconds (mas) RMS residual jitter using a 0.01 Hz bandwidth optical sensor on the star. We address the residual pointing error due to the spinning spacecraft reaction wheel assemblies which emit disturbances from 2 Hz to 1 kHz. The vibration attenuation strategy for this 'blind' pointing problem is to isolate each reaction wheel assembly with a vibration isolation system and to possibly augment the low bandwidth closed loop system with an internal high bandwidth sensor. Central to estimating the high frequency pointing error is the Micro-Precision Interferometer (MPI) testbed which is a softly suspended hardware model of a spaceborne optical interferometer and is dimensionally representative of SIM. Using the testbed and a transfer function-based performance prediction algorithm, we show that the 30 mas requirement is missed by a factor of six when only employing a six-axis active vibration isolator made by TRW. In preparation for augmenting the vibration attenuation strategy, we also show that the primary contributor to the tip-tilt jitter error is the first optic in the interferometer's optical train.

Citation Download Citation

Frank G. Dekens and Gregory W. Neat "Microprecision interferometer: pointing system solutions for on-orbit disturbance environment", Proc. SPIE 3985, Smart Structures and Materials 2000: Smart Structures and Integrated Systems, (22 June 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.388841

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