Abstract
The Far-Infrared and Sub-millimeter Space Telescope (FIRST) Astronomy Mission, is a cornerstone of the ESA science program for space observations in the 0.1 to 1 mm wavelength band. A very high accuracy star tracker has to be developed for the pointing and stabilization functions of the FIRST spacecraft. This paper deals with the optics trade-off analysis of this new star tracker VHPA, acronym derived from `very high pointing accuracy.' The optics trade-off consists of a comparative analysis of the following configurations: dioptric, catadioptric, Schmidt and Ritchey-Chretien telescopes. The results are shown and the polychromatic tests of image quality are reported, including centroid error function. A table of merit is provided in order to select the configuration proposed as baseline.
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