Monolithic Telescope
Freeform monolithic multi-surface telescope manufacturing
Creating a monolithic telescope in which all optical surfaces are off-axis and manufactured from a single optical blank piece of material required advances using freeform optics fabrication processes and techniques.
The Challenge
This is a unique challenge in the surface specification and fabrication requirements, to reduce the amount of alignment time and also to remove potential alignment errors and use.
Solution Delivered
Created a monolithic piece where all of the surfaces were aligned in process. This provides improvements in stability and payload.