Design and Simulation of 6.2m Wide-Field Telescope for Spectroscopic Survey

Abstract

The upcoming large astronomical telescopes are trending towards the Segmented Primary Mirror due to technological advancements & manufacturing feasibility. We have designed a wide-field optical IR spectroscopic survey telescope that can deliver spectra of several millions of astronomical sources. The baseline design of this telescope is a 6.2 m segmented primary mirror with hexagonal mirror segments of 1.44m size, intersegment Edge sensors, and soft positioning actuators. The telescope is designed to provide a 2.5deg FOV achieved through a system of wide field corrector lenses with a design residual ~0.2". Also, it delivers an f/3.61 beam suitable for directly feeding optical fibres. A mechanical concept of the telescope is designed with a truss-based mirror cell to support the segmented primary mirror and keep the deformation to a minimum. As the primary mirror is segmented, the deformation due to different disturbances like wind, vibration and thermal effects must be corrected to a nanometer accuracy to make it act like a monolithic primary mirror. This is achieved through an active control system using three actuators and six inter-segment edge sensors. A simulation tool, codeSMT, is built based on the state-space model of a soft actuator with Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) capability to incorporate dynamic wind disturbance from the IAO Hanle site and vibration effects. A detailed error multiplier analysis is performed numerically using this tool and is in good agreement with analytical calculations. A parameter sensitivity analysis is performed to fine-tune the primary mirror control system variables. This paper presents the Optical, Mechanical and Active Control system design approach of a 6.2m wide-field telescope currently under conceptual design.