A new adaptive secondary mirror for astronomy

自适应光学(AO)消除了星光中由湍流大气引起的像差。它极大地加强了地面望远镜的天文观测。该项目将开发一种比目前存在的更有能力和更可靠的AO系统。主要的技术进步将是一种创新的自适应次镜。这种光学元件将望远镜的一部分与光学系统的一部分结合在一起。它简化了光学系统，提高了性能。该项目将对主要的地面观测站产生广泛的影响。它将降低观测的复杂性，提高观测的可靠性，这对这些观测站来说是必不可少的。该项目还将支持本科生和研究生，并将邀请高中生作为暑期实习生。将校正元件集成到望远镜光学系统中的光学系统是一种理想的实现方式，因为它简化了光学系统，最大化了系统灵敏度，并提供了窄视场高分辨率观测和宽视场中分辨率观测，而不受大气的光学模糊影响。这使得独特的科学在红外波长下具有非常高的角度分辨率，并使广域观测的探测效率大致翻了一番。然而，当前的自适应次镜像昂贵、复杂，并且受到一系列故障模式的影响。这些限制是由执行机构类型的选择引起的，并不是根本的。该项目将在夏威夷大学2.2米望远镜上部署一个自适应次镜，该镜基于荷兰应用研究组织(TNO)合作者开发的一种新的致动器技术。这种新型执行器具有输入指令的线性位移，产生更高的力驱动，比目前系统中使用的音圈执行器效率更高。这将产生更简单、更强大、更可靠的自适应次镜像。这项工作对于下一代超大型望远镜至关重要，因为在这些望远镜中，自适应次镜需要非常可靠。此外，通过降低成本，该项目可以将自适应次级望远镜带到小口径望远镜的范围内。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Adaptive optics (AO) removes aberrations in starlight caused by the turbulent atmosphere. It greatly enhances astronomical observations from ground-based telescopes. This project will develop a more capable and reliable AO system than currently exists. The main technical advance will be an innovative adaptive secondary mirror. This optical element combines a part of the telescope with a part of the AO system. It simplifies the optics and improves performance. This project will have a broad impact on major ground-based observatories. It will reduce the complexity and improve the reliability of AO, which is essential for these observatories. The project will also support both undergraduate and graduate students, and it will engage high school students as summer interns. An AO system with its correcting element integrated into the telescope optics is an ideal implementation since it simplifies the optics, maximizes the system sensitivity, and provides both narrow-field high-resolution and wide-field modest resolution observations free of the optical blurring from the atmosphere. This enables unique science at very high angular resolution at infrared wavelengths and roughly doubles the survey efficiency of wide-field observations. However, current adaptive secondary mirrors are expensive, complex, and suffer from a range of failure modes. These limitations arise from the choice of the type of actuator and are not fundamental. This project will deploy an adaptive secondary mirror on the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope based on a new actuator technology developed by collaborators at The Netherlands Organization for Applied Research (TNO). The new actuator has a linear displacement with input command, produces a higher force actuation, and is more efficient than the voice-coil actuators used in current systems. This will result in a simpler, more capable, and more reliable adaptive secondary mirror. This work is critical for the next generation extremely large telescopes where an adaptive secondary mirror will need to be very reliable. In addition, by reducing cost, this project can bring adaptive secondaries within the reach of smaller aperture telescopes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.