Paper
27 August 2022 FEA testing the pre-flight Ariel primary mirror
Daniele Gottini, Emanuele Pace, Andrea Tozzi, Giovanni Bianucci, Andrea Bocchieri, Daniele Brienza, Anna Brucalassi, Rodolfo Canestrari, Luca Carbonaro, Paolo Chioetto, Fausto Cortecchia, Ciro Del Vecchio, Emiliano Diolaiti, Paul Eccleston, Salma Fahmy, Debora Ferruzzi, Camille Galy, Gabriele Grisoni, Elisa Guerriero, Jean-Philippe Halain, Marie-Laure Hellin, Marcella Iuzzolino, Delphine Jollet, Matteo Lombini, Giuseppe Malaguti, Giuseppina Micela, Nadia Missaglia, Gianluca Morgante, Lorenzo Mugnai, Luca Naponiello, Enzo Pascale, Raffaele Piazzolla, Giampaolo Preti, Stephane Roose, Mario Salatti, Jean-Christophe Salvignol, Antonio Scippa, Luca Terenzi, Giovanna Tinetti, Elisabetta Tommasi Di Vigano, Paola Zuppella
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Abstract
Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) is an ESA M class mission aimed at the study of exoplanets. The satellite will orbit in the lagrangian point L2 and will survey a sample of 1000 exoplanets simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. The challenging scientific goal of Ariel implies unprecedented engineering efforts to satisfy the severe requirements coming from the science in terms of accuracy. The most important specification – an all-Aluminum telescope – requires very accurate design of the primary mirror (M1), a novel, off-set paraboloid honeycomb mirror with ribs, edge, and reflective surface. To validate such a mirror, some tests were carried out on a prototype – namely Pathfinder Telescope Mirror (PTM) – built specifically for this purpose. These tests, carried out at the Centre Spatial de Liège in Belgium – revealed an unexpected deformation of the reflecting surface exceeding a peek-to-valley of 1µm. Consequently, the test had to be re-run, to identify systematic errors and correct the setting for future tests on the final prototype M1. To avoid the very expensive procedure of developing a new prototype and testing it both at room and cryogenic temperatures, it was decided to carry out some numerical simulations. These analyses allowed first to recognize and understand the reasoning behind the faults occurred during the testing phase, and later to apply the obtained knowledge to a new M1 design to set a defined guideline for future testing campaigns.
© (2022) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Daniele Gottini, Emanuele Pace, Andrea Tozzi, Giovanni Bianucci, Andrea Bocchieri, Daniele Brienza, Anna Brucalassi, Rodolfo Canestrari, Luca Carbonaro, Paolo Chioetto, Fausto Cortecchia, Ciro Del Vecchio, Emiliano Diolaiti, Paul Eccleston, Salma Fahmy, Debora Ferruzzi, Camille Galy, Gabriele Grisoni, Elisa Guerriero, Jean-Philippe Halain, Marie-Laure Hellin, Marcella Iuzzolino, Delphine Jollet, Matteo Lombini, Giuseppe Malaguti, Giuseppina Micela, Nadia Missaglia, Gianluca Morgante, Lorenzo Mugnai, Luca Naponiello, Enzo Pascale, Raffaele Piazzolla, Giampaolo Preti, Stephane Roose, Mario Salatti, Jean-Christophe Salvignol, Antonio Scippa, Luca Terenzi, Giovanna Tinetti, Elisabetta Tommasi Di Vigano, and Paola Zuppella "FEA testing the pre-flight Ariel primary mirror", Proc. SPIE 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 1218042 (27 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629815
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KEYWORDS
Mirrors

Telescopes

Finite element methods

Prototyping

Space operations

Exoplanets

Aluminum

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