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Aluminum based large telescopes: the ARIEL mission case

Picchi, Paolo; Tozzi, Andrea; Brucalassi, Anna; Araiza, Antonio José; Pace, Emanuele; Chioetto, Paolo; Zuppella, Paola; ... Morgante, Gianluca; + view all (2024) Aluminum based large telescopes: the ARIEL mission case. In: Coyle, Laura E and Perrin, Marshall D and Matsuura, Shuji, (eds.) Proceedings of the Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave. (pp. p. 284). Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Green open access

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Abstract

Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large Survey) is the adopted M4 mission of ESA “Cosmic Vision” program. Its purpose is to conduct a survey of the atmospheres of known exoplanets through transit spectroscopy. Launch is scheduled for 2029. Ariel scientific payload consists of an off-axis, unobscured Cassegrain telescope feeding a set of photometers and spectrometers in the waveband between 0.5 and 7.8 µm, and operating at cryogenic temperatures. The Ariel Telescope consists of a primary parabolic mirror with an elliptical aperture of 1.1 m of major axis, followed by a hyperbolic secondary, a parabolic recollimating tertiary and a flat folding mirror. The Primary mirror is a very innovative device made of lightened aluminum. Aluminum mirrors for cryogenic instruments and for space application are already in use, but never before now it has been attempted the creation of such a large mirror made entirely of aluminum: this means that the production process must be completely revised and fine-tuned, finding new solutions, studying the thermal processes and paying a great care to the quality check. By the way, the advantages are many: thermal stabilization is simpler than with mirrors made of other materials based on glass or composite materials, the cost of the material is negligeable, the shape may be free and the possibility of making all parts of the telescope, from optical surfaces to the structural parts, of the same material guarantees a perfect alignment at whichever temperature. The results and expectations for the flight model are discussed in this paper.

Type: Proceedings paper
Title: Aluminum based large telescopes: the ARIEL mission case
Event: Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave
Location: Yokohama, Japan
Dates: 16th-22nd June 2024
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1117/12.3018855
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.3018855
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197937
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