Optical alignment of contamination-sensitive far-ultraviolet spectrographs for Aspera SmallSat mission

Aafaque R. Khan; Erika Hamden; Haeun Chung; Heejoo Choi; Daewook Kim; Nicole Melso; Keri Hoadley; Carlos J. Vargas; Daniel Truong; Elijah Garcia; Bill Verts; Fernando Coronado; Jamison Noenickx; Jason Corliss; Hannah Tanquary; Tom McMahon; Dave Hamara; Simran Agarwal; Ramona Augustin; Peter Behroozi; Harrison Bradley; Trenton Brendel; Joe Burchett; Jasmine Martinez Castillo; Jacob Chambers; Lauren Corlies; Greyson Davis; Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar; Ewan Douglas; Giulia Ghidoli; Alfred Goodwin; Walter Harris; Carl Hergenrother; J. Christopher Howk; Miriam Keppler; Nazende Ipek Kerkeser; John N. Kidd Jr.; Jessica S. Li; Gabe Noriega; Sooseong Park; Ryan Pecha; Cork Sauve; David Schiminovich; Sanford Selznic; Oswald Siegmund; Rebecca Su; Sumedha Uppnor; Jacob Vider; Ellie Wolcott; Naomi Yescas; Dennis Zaritsky

doi:10.1117/12.3020822

21 August 2024 Optical alignment of contamination-sensitive far-ultraviolet spectrographs for Aspera SmallSat mission

Aafaque R. Khan, Erika Hamden, Haeun Chung, Heejoo Choi, Daewook Kim, Nicole Melso, Keri Hoadley, Carlos J. Vargas, Daniel Truong, Elijah Garcia, Bill Verts, Fernando Coronado, Jamison Noenickx, Jason Corliss, Hannah Tanquary, Tom McMahon, Dave Hamara, Simran Agarwal, Ramona Augustin, Peter Behroozi, Harrison Bradley, Trenton Brendel, Joe Burchett, Jasmine Martinez Castillo, Jacob Chambers, Lauren Corlies, Greyson Davis, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Ewan Douglas, Giulia Ghidoli, Alfred Goodwin, Walter Harris, Carl Hergenrother, J. Christopher Howk, Miriam Keppler, Nazende Ipek Kerkeser, John N. Kidd Jr., Jessica S. Li, Gabe Noriega, Sooseong Park, Ryan Pecha, Cork Sauve, David Schiminovich, Sanford Selznic, Oswald Siegmund, Rebecca Su, Sumedha Uppnor, Jacob Vider, Ellie Wolcott, Naomi Yescas, Dennis Zaritsky

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 130930A (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020822
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

Aspera is a NASA Astrophysics Pioneers SmallSat mission designed to study diffuse Ovi emission from the warm-hot phase gas in the halos of nearby galaxies. Its payload consists of two identical Rowland Circle-type long-slit spectrographs, sharing a single MicroChannel plate detector. Each spectrograph channel consists of an off-axis parabola primary mirror and a toroidal diffraction grating optimized for the 1013-1057 Å bandpass. Despite the simple configuration, the optical alignment/integration process for Aspera is challenging due to tight optical alignment tolerances, driven by the compact form factor, and the contamination sensitivity of the Far-Ultraviolet optics and detectors. In this paper, we discuss implementing a novel multi-phase approach to meet these requirements using state-of-the-art optical metrology tools. For coarsely positioning the optics we use a blue-laser 3D scanner while the fine alignment is done with a Zygo interferometer and a custom computer-generated hologram. The detector focus requires iterative in-vacuum alignment using a Vacuum UV collimator. The alignment is done in a controlled cleanroom facility at the University of Arizona.

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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Aafaque R. Khan, Erika Hamden, Haeun Chung, Heejoo Choi, Daewook Kim, Nicole Melso, Keri Hoadley, Carlos J. Vargas, Daniel Truong, Elijah Garcia, Bill Verts, Fernando Coronado, Jamison Noenickx, Jason Corliss, Hannah Tanquary, Tom McMahon, Dave Hamara, Simran Agarwal, Ramona Augustin, Peter Behroozi, Harrison Bradley, Trenton Brendel, Joe Burchett, Jasmine Martinez Castillo, Jacob Chambers, Lauren Corlies, Greyson Davis, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Ewan Douglas, Giulia Ghidoli, Alfred Goodwin, Walter Harris, Carl Hergenrother, J. Christopher Howk, Miriam Keppler, Nazende Ipek Kerkeser, John N. Kidd Jr., Jessica S. Li, Gabe Noriega, Sooseong Park, Ryan Pecha, Cork Sauve, David Schiminovich, Sanford Selznic, Oswald Siegmund, Rebecca Su, Sumedha Uppnor, Jacob Vider, Ellie Wolcott, Naomi Yescas, and Dennis Zaritsky "Optical alignment of contamination-sensitive far-ultraviolet spectrographs for Aspera SmallSat mission", Proc. SPIE 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 130930A (21 August 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020822

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