Primary mirror alignment and assembly for a multispectral space telescope

Abstract

For a currently developing multispectral space Cassegrain telescope, the primary mirror with 450 mm clear aperture is made of Zerodur and lightweighted at a ratio about 50 % to meet both thermal and mass requirement. For this mirror, it is critical to reduce the astigmatism caused from the gravity effect, bonding process and the deformation from the mounting to the main structure of the telescope (main plate). In this article, the primary mirror alignment, MGSE, assembly process and the optical performance test for the primary mirror assembly are presented. The mechanical shim is the interface between the iso-static mount and main plate. It is used to compensate the manufacture errors of components and differences of local co-planarity errors to prevent the stress while iso-static mount (ISM) is screwed to main plate. After primary mirror assembly, an optical performance test method called bench test with novel algorithm is used to analyze the astigmatism caused from the gravity effect and the deformation from the mounting or supporter. In an effort to achieve the requirement for the tolerance in primary mirror assembly, the astigmatism caused from the gravity and deformation by the mounting force could be less than P-V 0.02λ at 633 nm. The consequence of these demonstrations indicates that the designed mechanical ground supported equipment (MGSE) for the alignment and assembly processes meet the critical requirements for primary mirror assembly of the telescope.