Gravity Compensation Techniques for Enhancing Optical Performance in Satellite Multi-band Optical Sensor

Abstract

This paper discusses a gravity compensation technique designed to reduce wavefront error caused by gravity during the assembly and alignment of satellite multi-band optical sensor. For this study, the wavefront error caused by gravity was analyzed for the opto-mechanical structure of multi-band optical sensor. Wavefront error, an indicator of optical performance, was computed by using the displacements of optics calculated through structural analysis and optical sensitivity calculated through optical analysis. Since the calculated wavefront error caused by gravity exceeded the allocated budget, the gravity compensation technique was required. This compensation technique reduces wavefront error effectively by applying the compensation load to the appropriate position of the housing tube. This method successfully meets the wavefront error budget for all bands. In the future, a gravity compensation equipment applying this technique will be manufactured and used for assembly and alignment of multi-band optical sensor.