Optomechanical design and analysis for the LLCD space terminal telescope

Kate E. Nevin; Keith B. Doyle; Allen D Pillsbury

doi:10.1117/12.890204

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9 September 2011 Optomechanical design and analysis for the LLCD space terminal telescope

Kate E. Nevin, Keith B. Doyle, Allen D Pillsbury

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Proceedings Volume 8127, Optical Modeling and Performance Predictions V; 81270G (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.890204
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

An earth-based ground terminal and a lunar orbiting space terminal are being developed as part of NASA's Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration program. The space terminal is designed to minimize mass and power requirements while delivering high data rates using a four-inch aperture telescope and a 0.5 watt beam. Design challenges for the space terminal include providing telescope pointing stability to 4 μrad RMS and diffraction-limited wavefront quality. Conflicting design requirements including stress, LOS jitter, mounting errors, and thermal distortion were balanced to meet performance requirements in the presence of operational vibration and thermal disturbances while assuring that the system will survive the launch load environment. Analysis techniques including finite element analyses, closed-loop LOS jitter simulations, and integrated optomechanical analyses were utilized to evaluate and drive proposed design solutions to the final telescope configuration.

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Kate E. Nevin, Keith B. Doyle, and Allen D Pillsbury "Optomechanical design and analysis for the LLCD space terminal telescope", Proc. SPIE 8127, Optical Modeling and Performance Predictions V, 81270G (9 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.890204

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