Assembly, alignment and test of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) optical assemblies

At a Glance

Metadata	Details
Publication Date	2017-08-22
Authors	Gregory Balonek, Michael Chrisp, Kristin Clark, Christian Chesbrough, James Andre
Institutions	MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Abstract

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will carry four visible waveband, seven-element, refractive F/1.4 lenses, each with a 34 degree diagonal field of view. This paper describes the methods used for the assembly, alignment and test of the four flight optical assemblies. Prior to commencing the build of the four flight optical assemblies, a Risk Reduction Unit (RRU) was successfully assembled and tested [1]. The lessons learned from the RRU were applied to the build of the flight assemblies. The main modifications to the flight assemblies include the inking of the third lens element stray light mitigation, tighter alignment tolerances, and diamond turning for critical mechanical surfaces. Each of the optical assemblies was tested interferometrically and measured with a low coherence distance measuring interferometer (DMI) to predict the optimal shim thickness between the lens assembly and detector before -75°C environmental testing. In addition to individual test data, environmental test results from prior assemblies allow for the exploration of marginal performance differences between each of the optical assemblies.

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Original Source

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2275882

References

2016 - Tolerancing, alignment and test of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) optical assembly
2015 - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
2015 - Optical Design of the camera for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)