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The Micro-Precision Interferometer Testbed Instrument Design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

B. Hines ,
G. Neat ,
M.M. Colavita ,
R. Calvet  and
L. Sword
B. Hines
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA
G. Neat
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA
M.M. Colavita
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA
R. Calvet
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA
L. Sword
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA

Abstract

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The Micro-Precision Interferometer Testbed is essentially a space-based Michelson interferometer suspended in a ground-based laboratory. The purpose of the testbed is to serve as a proving ground for technologies needed for future space-based missions requiring low-vibration environments. A layered control architecture, utilizing isolation, structural control, and active optical control technologies, allows the system to achieve its vibration attenuation goals.

This paper focuses primarily on the interferometer instrument design for the testbed and the systems-level tradeoffs between the instrument and other systems due to the fact that the interferometer is on a large, lightly damped, flexible structure rather than on the ground. The testbed is designed to be a fully functioning interferometer spacecraft and makes use of flight-like hardware where possible, including an external star simulator, an attitude control system, fringe detection and tracking systems, delay lines, pointing control, laser metrology systems, and computers and electronic subsystems. The engineering decisions that led to the current instrument configuration are presented and explained.

Keywords

MPIoptical interferometryinterferometer testbedspace-based interferometry
Type
Instrumentation and Techniques
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 158: Very High Angular Resolution Imaging , 1994 , pp. 193 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1994 

References

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