Project : coprin

Section: Contracts and Grants with Industry

Alcatel Space Industries

Participants : Jean-Pierre Merlet, Fang Hao, David Daney, Yuan Cheng.

We have started at the end of 2002 a collaboration with Alcatel for the optimal design of a space-based observation telescope. The objectives of this study are to develop an instrument with a low inertia (to reduce the energy necessary for orienting the instrument and to allow fast orientation changes) while being deployable and to allow an active accurate control of the secondary mirror location.

In 2002/2003 we have proposed an innovative structure and we have completed a first optimal design study for a prototype. A small scale prototype is currently being developed in collaboration with the Technical University of Braunschweig and COPRIN is acting as sub-contractor of Alcatel for an ESA contract.

This prototype will be used by Alcatel to test the deployment phase and the accuracy. In parallel the measurement data will be used to develop a calibration method for the full-scale instrument and the optimal design methodology will be improved by taking into account the influence of the shading of the structure on the instrument performances.