Performance of the second MEMS space telescope for observation of extreme lightning from space

Abstract

A small space-telescope equipped with a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) micro-mirror is applied to space missions for observing random, rare and temporal events like transient luminous events (TLEs). The measurement of TLEs with fine time resolution will show the different temporal profiles predicted by the various models for sprites, blue jets, elves and halos. The proposed space-telescope consists of three components: two sub-telescopes with different focal lengths and a spectrometer. The trigger telescope with a short focal length surveys a wide field of view. The zoom-in telescope with a long focal length looks into a small field of view area that is part of the trigger telescope’s wide field of view. Upon identifying a candidate TLE, the trigger telescope determines the location of the event and provides the location to the MEMS micro-mirror. Then, the micro-mirror, which is placed as a pinhole in front of the zoom-in telescope, rotates its mirror plane by such an angle that the zoom-in telescope will watch the small field of view around the center of the event. In this manner, the zoom-in telescope achieves the zoom-in designed by its long focal length. The first such small-space telescope, the MEMS Telescope for Extreme Lightning (MTEL), was launched into space in 2009 and identified a few candidates sprites. However a power failure (over-charge of the solar battery) of the main satellite occurred, and the MTEL was not able to continue space operation to acquire sizable statistics for TLE events. We developed and constructed the second small-space telescope, called MTEL-II, to continue to observe TLE events in space. In this paper, we present the performance of MTEL-II based on ground tests.