Advanced Boundary and Alignment Actuation for Improvement of Large Membrane Optical Figure

The goal of the efforts described in this proposal is to establish the feasibility of boundary control and alignment actuators for improving the optical figure of thin film membrane optics. A representative example of this type of system, and the primary focus of the proposed Phase 2, is the DART telescope concept currently being advanced at JPL. Of immediate interest are multi-degree-of-freedom parallel actuator hexapod systems that can be used to adjust the orientation of the two primary reflectors relative to one another in the presence of manufacturing, deployment, and on-orbit disturbances. The desirability and feasibility of such systems was established in the course of Phase 1 activities. In Phase 2 we propose the continued development and hardware demonstration of hexapods with asymmetric attachment planes and suchsystems capable of functioning at the cryogenic temperatures required for infrared science as well as laying the groundwork for scaling up to on-orbit implementation. The developed systems will support the DART, and other space science, technology development efforts and lead to eventual in space applications as well as anticipated commercial/terrestrial spin-offs.