Imaging High-Altitude Satellites with the Quad-camera Wavefront-sensing Six-channel Speckle Interferometer
Abstract
We propose to upgrade the Quad-channel Wavefront Sensing Speckle Instrument (QWSSI) at the 4.3-meter Lowell Discovery Telescope from engineering-grade to imaging-grade optical filters. The QWSSI instrument currently can image objects in the sky with a diffraction-limited resolution of roughly 30 milliarcseconds, and conducts that imaging simultaneously in four spectral channels (577, 658, 808, and 880 nm) as well using non-imaging light for wavefront sensing. QWSSI s imaging has been successful but limited, because the engineering-grade spectral channel filters have significant wavefront error. This proposal will procure imaging quality filters as drop-in replacements that will improve the instrument s spatial resolution performance across all bandpasses (particularly the shortest, highest resolution wavelengths), as well as its imaging contrast performance. QWSSI, with its multi-wavelength and WFS architecture, represents a new generation of speckle imaging instruments, and this enhancement will allow it to demonstrate its fullest capabilities for SDA applications.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 29, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310111
Entities
People
- Elliott Horch
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force