The 1.4 meter lightweight carbon fiber mount for the Naval Prototype Optical Interferometer

Jonathan R. Andrews; Sergio R. Restaino; Christopher C. Wilcox; Scott W. Teare; Ty Martinez; Jim Clark; Josh Walton; Robert Romeo; Robert Martin

doi:10.1117/12.682102

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29 August 2006 The 1.4 meter lightweight carbon fiber mount for the Naval Prototype Optical Interferometer

Jonathan R. Andrews, Sergio R. Restaino, Christopher C. Wilcox, Scott W. Teare, Ty Martinez, Jim Clark, Josh Walton, Robert Romeo, Robert Martin

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Proceedings Volume 6306, Advanced Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications IV; 63060R (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.682102
Event: SPIE Optics + Photonics, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The portability of meter-class telescopes has been limited by the weight of the mirror, tube assembly and the mount required to provide pointing and tracking. The novel lightweight carbon fiber reinforced polymer telescopes being developed for array population at the Naval Prototype Optical Interferometer are orders of magnitude lighter than traditional telescopes. When combined with a lightweight carbon fiber mount, these telescopes will be easily transportable from one telescope station to another to change the interferometer baseline. The mount for a lightweight telescope is currently under development at Composite Mirror Applications, Inc. This paper reports on the design constraints of the mount, the scalability to larger aperture telescopes and the integration of sensors to measure the performance characteristics of this system during operation.

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Jonathan R. Andrews, Sergio R. Restaino, Christopher C. Wilcox, Scott W. Teare, Ty Martinez, Jim Clark, Josh Walton, Robert Romeo, and Robert Martin "The 1.4 meter lightweight carbon fiber mount for the Naval Prototype Optical Interferometer", Proc. SPIE 6306, Advanced Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications IV, 63060R (29 August 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.682102

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