Thermal-vacuum testing and in-situ optical alignment measurements of the HALOE telescope/sun sensor assembly
Design features, test data and projected performance levels of the telescope/sun sensor assembly for the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite are described. HALOE will gather data on stratospheric chemical species with an IR telescope pointed through the atmosphere at the sun during occultation periods. The pointing accuracy will need to be 1 arcmin elevation and 1.6 arcmin azimuthal. Adjustments of the gimbaled instrument are guided by a sun sensor and its associated electronics. The components were subjected to thermal-vacuum, optical boresight stability tests and the data generated were compared with a finite element model of the telescope and sun sensor. The tests consisted of exposure to various thermal gradients while the telescope and sun sensor alignments were tracked by optical deflectometry. The thermal behavior was compared with predictions made with a finite difference model. Alignments were within tolerable ranges and the thermal behavior model was concluded valid for predicting the thermal behavior of orbiting instruments.