Description & Features
AOS’s AP Series Satellite Telescopes are a constellation-ready product line, which can be adapted to specific customer needs with collaborative system engineering. New project development matches specific customer requirements with the advantages of the AOS telescope architecture and results in production-ready dependable optical systems.
SiC: The Enabling Advantage:
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a unique advanced composite ceramic, which has the highest combination of specific stiffness and thermo-optical stability of any material, which can be optically finished. Because of its unique properties, SiC can be used as both the structural as well as the optical material, enabling complete athermal designs. SiC telescopes outperform conventional glass and metal designs often eliminating the need for active focus control and thermal compensation technologies. Simplified designs lead to higher reliability, lower production cost, and lower mass.
Designed For Production:
Our designs are manufacturing proven and our vertically integrated advanced manufacturing facilities guaranty that our telescopes will be perform. Fabrication of telescopes is accomplished using high precision diamond based shaping, and robotic polishing. Image performance is verified interferometrically through extensive systems testing.
Specifications
AP Series telescopes are based on a corrected Ritchey-Chrétien design utilizing SiC materials for all critical mirror and optical metering structures. The structure supports a range of launch orientations allowing flexibility in launch options.
The AP Series telescope system is a standardized architecture with generalized specifications intended to define basline performance specifications. Most AP series telescopes are customized to meet customer defined mission requirements. Therefore, specifications below should be considered as typical only. All specifications are for as-built performance and verified through customer agreed acceptance testing.
| Attribute |
Range |
| Design |
Corrected Ritchey-Chretian, Super RC options |
| Material
Aperture |
Silicon Carbide
25 to 50 cm |
| Focal Length
Length |
1.1 m to 2.4 m
30-60 cm |
| F# |
f/5 to f/11 |
| Field of View |
0.5 to 1.2 degree |
| Mass |
4 – 7 Kg |
| Athermal |
-10 to +30 C |
| Satellite Interface |
Custom integrated Flexure |
Ordering Information
Satellite telescope project planning begins with understanding our customers’ goals for performance, schedule and budget. AOS will present a preliminary solution based on our library of designs and our baseline AP-series telescope product. Sensor selection and spacecraft interface are conducted in collaboration with our customers’ systems engineers to merge our combined assets into effective final designs.
Contact us today here to begin exploring how our solutions can be your enabling advantage.
