Browse Topic: Telescopes

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Vibration Isolator Steadies Optics for NASA's James Webb Space TelescopeTBMG-3582001/01/2020
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields of health and medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety, computer technology, and environmental resources.
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Smart, Hybrid Actuators Combine Nanometer Precision, Large Forces, and Long Travel Ranges with High DynamicsTBMG-3529010/01/2019
The characteristics of hybrid drives present a practical solution when a position needs to be detected with high precision and moved repeatedly over long travel ranges, or when a target position needs to be reached with nanometer precision. Application areas include precision movement of telescopes, microscopy, surface inspection, semiconductor manufacturing, and laser technology.
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Revolutionary Camera Allows Scientists to Predict Evolution of Ancient StarsTBMG-3477507/01/2019
Scientists at the University of Sheffield have been working with HiPERCAM, a high-speed, multicolor camera, which is capable of taking more than 1,000 images per second, allowing experts to measure both the mass and the radius of a cool subdwarf star for the first time.
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Keck Telescopes Get a Motion Control UpgradeTBMG-3411804/01/2019
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii Island is surrounded by thousands of miles of thermally stable seas. The 13,796-foot Maunakea mountain summit has no nearby ranges to roil the upper atmosphere, and for most of the year, this atmosphere is clear, calm, and dry, enabling the W. M. Keck Observatory, with its twin 10-meter-mirror telescopes, to observe our galaxy and beyond at levels special to it since opening in the early 1990s. Now, after the completion of a significant nine-year motion control upgrade project, the Keck Observatory telescopes, each standing 30 meters (almost 100 feet) tall, are offering data and observations with new and impressive nanometer precision. And all changes were made without experiencing any downtime on either telescope.
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The Teletenna — a Hybrid Telescope Antenna SystemTBMG-3417804/01/2019
Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a hybrid telescope antenna system — Teletenna — to deliver high-data-rate communication over great distances. Teletenna has the potential to benefit deep space missions and communications on Earth. By combining two very different communications systems — optics and radio frequency (RF) — Teletenna capitalizes on the benefits of each system while overcoming conflicting engineering requirements.
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Ultra-Thin “Meta-Lens” Enables Full-Color ImagingTBMG-3355501/01/2019
Light of different colors travels at different speeds in different materials and structures. This is why we see white light split into its constituent colors after refracting through a prism, a phenomenon called dispersion. An ordinary lens cannot focus light of different colors to a single spot due to this dispersion. This means different colors are never in focus at the same time, and so an image formed by such a simple lens is inevitably blurred. Conventional imaging systems solve this problem by stacking multiple lenses, but this solution comes at the cost of increased complexity and weight.
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Lens-Free Fluorescent MicroscopeTBMG-2974107/01/2018
Rice engineers have developed a wide-field microscope thinner than a credit card, small enough to sit on a fingertip and capable of micrometer resolution over a volume of several cubic millimeters.
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Space ImagingTBMG-2850803/01/2018
The term Space Imaging covers a wide variety of mission types and technologies.
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Webb Telescope Actuators Move with Microscopic AccuracyTBMG-2794812/01/2017
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. With a 21-foot diameter, the telescope’s primary mirror is six times larger than the one used by the Hubble Space Telescope. In order for such a large mirror to travel into space, it has to be broken up into multiple segments; in this case, 18 of them. But for the 18 to act as one primary mirror, they have to be adjusted while in orbit.
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Electrochemically Enhanced Mechanical Polishing of OpticsTBMG-2801412/01/2017
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center astrophysicists are developing better instruments to measure high-energy X-rays zipping about space when viewed from above the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists at MSFC adapted a novel method for material removal and super-polishing to the mandrel fabrication of an advanced X-ray telescope.
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Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D. C.TBMG-2716807/18/2017
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Method Improves Accuracy of Imaging DataTBMG-2687005/01/2017
Research by the University of Chicago provides scientists looking at single molecules or into deep space a more accurate way to analyze imaging data captured by microscopes, telescopes, and other devices. The method, known as single-pixel interior filling function (SPIFF), detects and corrects systematic errors in data and image analysis used in many areas of science and engineering.
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A Novel Orbiting Cloud Imager System for IR/UV/ X-Ray BandsTBMG-2666704/01/2017
Typically, the cost of a spaceborne imaging system is driven by the size and mass of the primary aperture. Innovative solutions for imagers that are less complex and are lightweight are very desirable. Currently, telescopes such as JWST and ATLAST are very expensive and very complex.
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Laser Vision Helps Package Shippers See ClearlyTBMG-2638002/01/2017
For more than 25 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided stunning photos of the universe unequalled in their depth, detail, and distinction. But in its early days, Hubble wasn't capable of sending back such breathtaking photos. Within weeks of launch, the images beamed back to Earth were fuzzy and out of focus. It was determined that Hubble's primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape and was too flat by 2.2 micrometers, causing reflected light from the edge of the mirror to be focused on a different point than light coming from near the center. It was determined that the device used to create the nonspherical mirror had been incorrectly assembled, and the mirror's manufacturer had failed to notice the problem before Hubble was launched.
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Active Learning System for iPTF Candidate ClassificationTBMG-2605312/01/2016
The Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) is a visible-spectrum astronomy survey aimed at detecting “transient” events such as supernovae. Every night, a telescope at the Palomar observatory collects images of various regions of the sky and compares them to a set of reference images taken on previous nights. The image comparison is done via a subtraction process. The reference images are subtracted from the new nightly images, and any remaining light sources are flagged as candidate transient events.
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Aerospace & Defense Technology: December 201616AERP1212/01/2016
Additive Manufacturing How 3D Printing Will Transform the A&D Support Chain Advances in Lightweight Electronics Protection Conformal Coatings Increase Reliability of Aerospace and Military Assemblies Powering Outer Space An In-Depth Look at Aerospace Battery Technology Using High Bandwidth Oscilloscopes to Analyze Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems Bio-inspired Airborne Infrastructure Reconfiguration (BioAIR) EMI Analysis Software Helps Telescope Group Simulate RFI Mitigation Epitaxial Growth of Rhenium with Sputtering Processing and Characterization of Polycrystalline YAG (Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) Core-Clad Fibers Multi-Scale Analysis of Deformation and Failure in Polycrystalline Titanium Alloys Under High Strain Rates Abrasion Testing of Products Containing Nanomaterials Spectrum Fatigue of 7075-T651 Aluminum Alloy under Overloading and Underloading
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Low-Scatter Starshade EdgesTBMG-2425204/01/2016
A starshade occulter is a large space structure whose shape is specially designed to produce a diffraction pattern in starlight that can aid a telescope in direct imaging of exoplanets. The diffraction pattern produces extremely high-contrast dark regions in the starshade’s shadow on the order of 10-9 or 10-10. To do so, the edge shape of the structure must be held to extremely tight tolerances. In addition, potentially obscuring glint light from the Sun must be minimized to prevent loss of contrast.
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Optical Correlation ReceiverTBMG-2412703/01/2016
Precise distance, time, and pulse width measurements are required for many areas of science and engineering. Time-of-flight methods are often used to measure remote distances. Optical signals are attractive because the small wavelength allows small transmit and receive telescopes. Short pulsed lasers are attractive sources that can provide high-distance measurement precision. Fast optical detectors are typically used at the receiver. Measurement precision is usually limited by the detectors’ temporal bandwidth. Picosecond and sub-picosecond pulses are difficult to measure and resolve. Optical autocorrelators have been used that employ nonlinear crystals. The optical autocorrelators require strong optical signals that can limit or preclude their use for remote, long-distance measurements.
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Position Sensing and Formation Flying Using Optical BeaconsTBMG-2365401/01/2016
One way of imaging exoplanets around nearby stars is to use a starshade in conjunction with a space telescope. Typically, the starshade, which resembles a sunflower in outline, is ~ 30 meters in diameter. The starshade is flown about 50,000 km in front of the telescope, and when positioned directly in the telescope’s line of sight to the star, blocks the starlight, casting a deep shadow onto the telescope. Exoplanets orbiting the star and having a small angle to the line of sight will be visible because the starlight is extinguished. During the observation period, the position of the telescope needs to be maintained within about 1 m of the center of the shadow for maximum shading of the starlight.
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Modified-Wolter-Schwarzschild X-ray TelescopeTBMG-2349712/01/2015
X-ray survey missions require nested grazing incidence telescopes with a large field of view (1° or larger) and moderately high resolution across the field of view. This cannot be accomplished using flat focal plane detectors. The telescopes have excellent on-axis resolution, but unacceptable resolution at the edge of the field of view. The aberrations need to be optimized and correctly balanced to improve the telescope optical performance across the field of view.
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A 16-Beam, Non-Scanning, Swath-Mapping Laser Altimeter InstrumentTBMG-2327911/01/2015
The purpose of this work was to develop and demonstrate technologies for a next-generation, efficient, swath-mapping space laser altimeter. The Lidar Surface Topography (LIST) mission concept allows simultaneous measurements of 5-meter-spatial-resolution topography and vegetation vertical structure with decimeter vertical precision in an elevationimaging swath several kilometers wide from a 400-km-altitude Earth orbit. To advance and demonstrate needed technologies for the LIST mission, the Airborne LIST Simulator (ALISTS) pathfinder instrument was developed. ALISTS is a micropulse, single photon-sensitive waveform recording system based on a new and highly efficient laser measurement approach utilizing emerging laser transmitter and detector technologies.
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Spitzer Integrated Resource Planning and Scheduling System (SIRPASS)TBMG-2305610/01/2015
This decision support system provides an integrated platform for assessing the quality of Spitzer scheduling options. The application aids in scheduling instrument selection, assigns schedule times to specific observation requests, and generates stored sequence products destined for execution on the Spitzer Space Telescope.
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Area Coverage Path Planning Using Divided Grid-GraphsTBMG-2305910/01/2015
Planning area coverage observations is a challenge in an architecture with a framing imager affixed to a bus that can be moved, and a mirror or other device that allows for small, but fast, observation of adjacent areas along the boresight of a telescope. The telescope boresight can slew slowly while the mirror system maintains pointing on a specific field of view. This allows the continuous gathering of data (much like push - broom instruments) without the need to slew or settle. Since the telescope field of view is much larger than the imager field of view, the areas to be imaged can be divided into quarters.
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Neo-Geography Toolkit (NGT) v2TBMG-2217606/01/2015
The Neo-Geography Toolkit (NGT) is a collection of open-source software tools for the automated processing of geospatial data, including images and maps. It can process raw raster data from remote sensing instruments and transform it into useful cartographic products such as visible image base maps, topographic models, etc. It can also perform data processing on extremely large geospatial data sets (up to several tens of terabytes) via parallel processing pipelines. Finally, it can transform raw metadata, vector data, and geo-tagged datasets into standard Neo-Geography data formats such as KML.
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Synthetic Imaging Maneuver Optimization — SIMOTBMG-2203005/01/2015
Space-based interferometry missions have the potential to revolutionize imaging and astrometry, providing observations of unprecedented accuracy. Realizing the full potential of these interferometers poses several significant technological challenges. These include the efficient maneuvering of multiple collectors to various baselines to make the requisite observations; regulating the path-length of science light from the collecting telescopes to the combining instrument with nanometer accuracy, despite the presence of vibration induced by internal and external disturbance sources; and demonstrating through hardware-in-the-loop simulation that the numerous spacecraft (SC) subsystems can be coordinated to perform such challenging observations in a precise, efficient, and robust manner.
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The Hubble Space TelescopeTBMG-2170603/01/2015
On April 24, 1990, something happened that forever altered mankind’s view of the universe. It was on that day that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
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Researcher Spotlight: Atom­Thick Material Offers 2D Imaging PossibilitiesTBMG-2166603/01/2015
Rice University scientists have developed a two-dimensional, atom-thick, light-sensitive material called CIS, a single-layer matrix of copper, indium, and selenium atoms. Sidong Lei, a graduate student, also built a prototype — a three-pixel charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor — to prove the material’s ability to capture an image. The optoelectronic memory material may be the basis for future flat imaging devices and two-dimensional electronics.
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Microelectronic Repair Techniques for Wafer-Level IntegrationTBMG-2070710/01/2014
Wafer-level integration was employed to mount the microshutter array for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the detector-read-out hybrid for TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor). In the case of the JWST substrate, two conductors (polysilicon and aluminum) separated by a silicon oxide insulating layer were fabricated on a roughly 85-mm-square silicon wafer. The size of the substrate, the density and length of the conductive traces, and the requirement of zero shorts and zero opens on the finished device necessitated nearly impossible cleanroom requirements. Techniques were developed to repair the inevitable shorts and opens created during the wafer fabrication process. The wafers were repaired to zero shorts and zero opens without degradation of device performance.
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Preparation, Planning, and Concept Demo of a Technique to Find ≈7-to-10-m Near Earth AsteroidsTBMG-2033208/01/2014
A paper describes a new technique designed to increase significantly the sensitivity for finding and tracking small, dim, and fast-moving near Earth asteroids (NEAs). The technique relies on a combined use of a novel data processing approach and a new generation of high-speed CCD cameras. These new cameras have very low readout noise (≈le–) and allow taking short exposures of moving objects at high frame rates, effectively “freezing” their motion on the CCD. A long-exposure image is synthetically created as if the telescope were tracking the object with a significantly higher SNR — an approach called “synthetic tracking.” By changing the shift/add vector, multiple dim objects moving in different directions can be detected in the same data set.
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Picoradian Staring Astrometry Using a Simple Staring TelescopeTBMG-2033408/01/2014
A document describes solutions to problems of astrometry at the microarc-second (picoradian) level using a simple staring telescope. The problems include field-dependent beam-walk on the telescope’s mirrors, pixel position irregularity and distortion over time, non-flat intra-pixel quantum efficiency, and systematic errors inherent in the most common image centroiding algorithms (imperfect knowledge of the point spread function).
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Imaging Space System Architectures Using a Granular Medium as a Primary ConcentratorTBMG-2002007/01/2014
Typically, the cost of a space observatory is driven by the size and mass of the primary aperture. Generally, a monolithic aperture is much heavier and complex to fabricate (hence, more costly) than an aperture of the same size but composed of much smaller units. Formation flying technology, as applied to swarm systems in space, is an emerging discipline.
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High-Speed Spectral MapperTBMG-1992106/01/2014
The Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) spaceborne mission has two imaging sensors operating in the visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) and the thermal infrared (TIR), respectively. The HyspIRI-TIR imaging instrument is being developed for infrared mapping of the Earth in 8 spectral bands with a 5-day revisit time at the equator. The system will have 60-m ground resolution at nadir, 200-mK noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) for 300 K scenes, and 0.5 ºC absolute temperature accuracy. As the spacecraft moves in its polar orbit, a rotating scan mirror allows the telescope to view a 51º cross-track nadir strip, an internal blackbody target, and space, every 2.1 s. Combining the overlapping strips will yield a 51º (597-km) wide swath below the spacecraft.
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Partially Transparent Petaled Mask/Occulter for Visible-Range SpectrumTBMG-1746210/01/2013
The presence of the Poisson Spot, also known as the spot of Arago, has been known since the 18th century. This spot is the consequence of constructive interference of light diffracted by the edge of the obstacle where the central position can be determined by symmetry of the object. More recently, many NASA missions require the suppression of this spot in the visible range. For instance, the exoplanetary missions involving space telescopes require telescopes to image the planetary bodies orbiting central stars. For this purpose, the starlight needs to be suppressed by several orders of magnitude in order to image the reflected light from the orbiting planet. For the Earth-like planets, this suppression needs to be at least ten orders of magnitude. One of the common methods of suppression involves sharp binary petaled occulters envisioned to be placed many thousands of miles away from the telescope blocking the starlight.
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Lightweight Liquid Helium Dewar for High-Altitude Balloon PayloadsTBMG-1745510/01/2013
Astrophysical observations at millimeter wavelengths require large (2-to-5- meter diameter) telescopes carried to altitudes above 35 km by scientific research balloons. The scientific performance is greatly enhanced if the telescope is cooled to temperatures below 10 K with no emissive windows between the telescope and the sky. Standard liquid helium bucket dewars can contain a suitable telescope for telescope diameter less than two meters. However, the mass of a dewar large enough to hold a 3-to-5-meter diameter telescope would exceed the balloon lift capacity.
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JWST Integrated Science Instrument Module Alignment Optimization ToolTBMG-1745810/01/2013
During cryogenic vacuum testing of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), the global alignment of the ISIM with respect to the designed interface of the JWST optical telescope element (OTE) will be measured through a series of optical characterization tests. These tests will determine the locations and orientations of the JWST science instrument projected focal surfaces and entrance pupils with respect to their corresponding OTE optical interfaces. If any optical performance non-compliances are identified, the ISIM will be adjusted to improve its performance. In order to understand how to manipulate the ISIM’s degrees of freedom properly and to prepare for the ISIM flight model testing, a series of opticalmechanical analyses have been completed to develop and identify the best approaches for bringing a non-compliant ISIM element into compliance.
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Implementation of a Wavefront-Sensing AlgorithmTBMG-1723509/01/2013
A computer program has been written as a unique implementation of an imagebased wavefront-sensing algorithm reported in “Iterative-Transform Phase Retrieval Using Adaptive Diversity” (GSC-14879-1), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 4 (April 2007), page 32. This software was originally intended for application to the James Webb Space Telescope, but is also applicable to other segmented-mirror telescopes.
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Using Adaptive Optics to Perform Deep-Tissue Cell ImagingTBMG-1689507/01/2013
In biological imaging, the object of interest is not always in plain sight. This is especially true when performing microscopy of cells buried deep within tissues. The tissues covering the cells tend to bend and scatter the light passing through them, which prevents acquiring sharp images of the cells below. To overcome this, researchers at a leading science campus developed a novel way to use adaptive optics in microscopy.
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Hyperspectral Imager-TrackerTBMG-1658206/01/2013
The Hyperspectral Imager-Tracker (HIT) is a technique for visualization and tracking of low-contrast, fast-moving objects. The HIT architecture is based on an innovative and only recently developed concept in imaging optics. This innovative architecture will give the Light Prescriptions Innovators (LPI) HIT the possibility of simultaneously collecting the spectral band images (hyperspectral cube), IR images, and to operate with high-light-gathering power and high magnification for multiple fast- moving objects. Adaptive Spectral Filtering algorithms will efficiently increase the contrast of low-contrast scenes.
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Video Wall Displays High-Resolution Images from JPL RoversTBMG-1625504/01/2013
Wilshire Media Systems, a division of Wilshire Home Entertainment, will allow NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to display ultra-high-resolution images from its active missions across the solar system — including images coming from the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity or the Hubble Space Telescope.
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An Active Heater Control Concept to Meet IXO Type Mirror Module Thermal-Structural Distortion RequirementTBMG-1613404/01/2013
Flight mirror assemblies (FMAs) of large telescopes, such as the International X-ray Observatory (IXO), have very stringent thermal-structural distortion requirements. The spatial temperature gradient requirement within a FMA could be as small as 0.05 °C. Conventionally, heaters and thermistors are attached to the stray light baffle (SLB), and centralized heater controllers (i.e., heater controller boards located in a large electronics box) are used. Due to the large number of heater harnesses, accommodating and routing them is extremely difficult. The total harness length/mass is very large. This innovation uses a thermally conductive pre-collimator to accommodate heaters and a distributed heater controller approach. It minimizes the harness length and mass, and reduces the problem of routing and accommodating them.
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Cobra Fiber-Optic Positioner UpgradeTBMG-1598303/01/2013
A prime focus spectrometer (PFS), along with corrective optics, will mount in place of the secondary mirror of the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This will allow simultaneous observations of cosmologic targets. It will enable large-scale galactic archeology and dark energy surveys to help unlock the secrets of the universe.
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Sensors Enable Precise Mounting of X-Ray Telescope AssemblyTBMG-1580902/01/2013
NASA’s newest orbital X-ray telescope technology uses highperformance capacitive displacement sensors from Lion Precision. The sensors, capable of resolving position to less than 10 nanometers, are used during the mounting of over 10,000 thin glass mirrors into the telescope’s “lens.” Each mirror is about the size of a sheet of paper and only four times thicker. Achieving the required optical specifications for the telescope requires that each of the mirrors be mounted into position with better than 1 μm of accuracy. The mirrors must be able to hold this positional and angular accuracy during launch and deployment in space.
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Ultra-Compact, Superconducting Spectrometer-on-a-Chip at Submillimeter WavelengthsTBMG-1551101/01/2013
Small size, wide spectral bandwidth, and highly multiplexed detector readout are required to develop powerful multi-beam spectrometers for high-redshift observations. Currently available spectrometers at these frequencies are large and bulky. The grating sizes for these spectrometers are prohibitive. This fundamental size issue is a key limitation for space-based spectrometers for astrophysics applications.
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JWST Lifting SystemTBMG-1527712/01/2012
A document describes designing, building, testing, and certifying a customized crane (Lifting Device — LD) with a strong back (cradle) to facilitate the installation of long wall panels and short door panels for the GHe phase of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
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Seismic Imager Space TelescopeTBMG-1509811/01/2012
A concept has been developed for a geostationary seismic imager (GSI), a space telescope in geostationary orbit above the Pacific coast of the Americas that would provide movies of many large earthquakes occurring in the area from Southern Chile to Southern Alaska. The GSI movies would cover a field of view as long as 300 km, at a spatial resolution of 3 to 15 m and a temporal resolution of 1 to 2 Hz, which is sufficient for accurate measurement of surface displacements and photometric changes induced by seismic waves. Computer processing of the movie images would exploit these dynamic changes to accurately measure the rapidly evolving surface waves and surface ruptures as they happen. These measurements would provide key information to advance the understanding of the mechanisms governing earthquake ruptures, and the propagation and arrest of damaging seismic waves.
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Motion Control Components Keep Curiosity on the GoTBMG-1517211/01/2012
PI Ceramic monolithic piezo actuators (PICMA) were put to use in the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. CheMin is an Xray diffraction-capable mineralogy instrument whose purpose is to determine if water was present in the formation of Martian rocks and soil.
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SATPLOT for Analysis of SECCHI Heliospheric Imager DataTBMG-1466209/01/2012
Determining trajectories of solar transients such as coronal mass ejections is not always easy. White light images from SECCHI’s (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) heliospheric imagers are difficult to interpret because they represent a lineof- sight projection of optically thin solar wind structures. A structure’s image by itself gives no information about its angle of propagation relative to the Sunspacecraft line, and an image may show a superposition of several structures, all propagating at different angles. Analyzing SECCHI heliospheric imager data using plots of elongation (angle from the Sun) versus time at fixed position angle (aka “Jplots”) has proved extremely useful in understanding the observed solar wind structures. This technique has been used to study CME (coronal mass ejection) propagation, CIRs (corotating interaction regions), and blobs.
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Plasma Treatment To Remove Carbon From Indium UV FiltersTBMG-1460509/01/2012
The sounding rocket experiment FIRE (Far-ultraviolet Imaging Rocket Experi ment) will improve the science community’s ability to image a spectral region hitherto unexplored astronomically. The imaging band of FIRE (≈900 to 1,100 Å) will help fill the current wavelength imaging observation hole existing from ≈620 Å to the GALEX band near 1,350 Å. FIRE is a single-optic prime focus telescope with a 1.75-m focal length. The bandpass of 900 to 1100 Å is set by a combination of the mirror coating, the indium filter in front of the detector, and the salt coating on the front of the detector’s microchannel plates. Critical to this is the indium filter that must reduce the flux from Lyman-alpha at 1,216 Å by a minimum factor of 10–4. The cost of this Lyman-alpha removal is that the filter is not fully transparent at the desired wavelengths of 900 to 1,100 Å.
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MEMS Deformable Mirrors Enable Imaging of Earth-Sized Extra-Solar PlanetsTBMG-1448508/01/2012
The NASA-sponsored space exploration project, PICTURE (Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment), seeks to obtain a direct image of an extra-solar giant planet. The PICTURE telescope, which uses a BMC deformable mirror for adaptive optic wavefront control, was launched aboard a NASA sounding rocket in October 2011. Preliminary data show that the MEMS deformable mirror was successful in its operation.
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Binding Causes of Printed Wiring Assemblies With Card-LoksTBMG-1421908/01/2012
A document discusses a study that presents the first documented extraction loads, both nominal and worstcase, and presents the first comprehensive evaluation of extraction techniques, methodologies, and tool requirements relating to extracting printed wiring assemblies (PWAs) with Card-Loks during EVA (extra vehicular activity). This task was performed for the first time during HST (Hubble Space Telescope) Servicing Mission 4.
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