Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2212.03686

Optical and Opto-mechanical Analysis and Design of the Telescope for the Ariel Mission

Paolo Chioetto
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (Ariel) is the first space mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of thousands of transiting exoplanets. Ariel was adopted in 2020 as the M4 mission in ESA "Cosmic Vision" program, with launch expected in 2029. The mission will operate from the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L2. The scientific payload consists of two instruments: a high resolution spectrometer in the waveband 1.95-7.8 microns, and a fine guidance system / visible photometer / low resolution near-infrared spectrometer. The instruments are fed a collimated beam from an unobscured, off-axis Cassegrain telescope. Instruments and telescope will operate at a temperature below 50 K. Telescope mirrors and supporting structures will be realized in aerospace-grade aluminum. Given the large aperture of the primary mirror (0.6 m$^2$), it is a choice of material that requires careful optical and opto-mechanical design, and technological advances in the three areas of mirror substrate thermal stabilization, optical surface polishing and optical coating. This thesis presents the work done by the author in these areas, as member of the team responsible for designing and manufacturing the telescope and mirrors, starting with a systematic review of the optical and opto-mechanical requirements and design choices of the Ariel telescope, in the context of previous development work and scientific goals and requirements of the mission. The review then progresses with opto-mechanical design, examining the most important choices in terms of structural and thermal design, and with a statistical analysis of the deformations of the optical surface of the telescope mirrors and of their alignment in terms of rigid body motions. The details of the qualification work on thermal stabilization, polishing and coating are then presented.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.IMastro-ph.EP

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Paolo Chioetto. 2022-12-07. Optical and Opto-mechanical Analysis and Design of the Telescope for the Ariel Mission. https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03686

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

The EDD Radio Astronomy Backend Framework

Modern digital radio astronomy receivers produce increasingly wide-bandwidth, high bit-rate data streams that necessitate the development of flexible, scalable, and maintainable backend processing and recording systems. Historically, such backend instrumentation has been tightly coupled to telescope observing modes, limiting reuse between observatories and science cases. We present the Effelsberg Direct Digitisation (EDD) backend framework, a software-defined architecture for constructing real-time radio astronomy backends on commodity off-the-shelf computing infrastructure. We describe its design, implementation, supported observing modes, and operational deployments. EDD separates a common core framework from plugin-provided observing capabilities. The core provides orchestration, telescope interfaces, pipeline lifecycle management, monitoring, and deployment tooling, while plugins implement processing pipelines for specific observing modes. The framework is designed to support both single-dish and interferometric instruments through site-specific configuration and plugin selection. EDD currently supports spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry, pulsar timing and searching, baseband recording, very long baseline interferometry, correlation, and beamforming. Operational deployments include the Effelsberg 100-m telescope, the SKA-MPI prototype dish, the Thai National Radio Telescope, and the ARGOS interferometric prototype array. By separating common services, observing-mode plugins, and site-specific configuration, it allows backend capabilities to be deployed across heterogeneous telescope environments and provides a community resource for broadband radio astronomy instrumentation.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2026

Bayesian Superiority in On/Off analysis

We present a detailed comparison of Bayesian criteria with three non-informative priors - flat, Jeffreys, and scale-invariant - for testing a signal against an unknown background and compare them with the classical frequentist Li-Ma approach in the On/Off problem. We perform Monte Carlo simulations for various background levels and evaluate the Li-Ma and Bayesian criteria by their Type I error rates. We then simulate a nonzero signal and compare the criteria in terms of Type II error rates. We find that the Bayesian criterion with the Jeffreys prior yields lower Type I and Type II error rates than the Li-Ma criterion. In addition, we show that the Bayesian criteria are more robust than the Li-Ma criterion when the background distribution is overdispersed relative to the Poisson distribution.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2026

An RFSoC-based Backend and Timing System for the Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment

We present the design and performance characterization of the digital backend and precision-timing system for the Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment (BVEX), a pathfinder for high-frequency stratospheric VLBI at 22 GHz. The backend uses one of the four 14-bit analog-to-digital converter inputs on an AMD-Xilinx RFSoC 4x2. Although the converters support sampling rates up to 5 GSPS, the flight configuration digitizes the 2-4 GHz intermediate frequency at 4.096 GSPS. CASPER firmware provides both a high-resolution spectrometer for pointing and receiver verification, and a VLBI acquisition chain with two-bit requantization that records at a rate of about 8.2 Gbps. The timestamped data packets are sent over 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to a 16 TB NVMe array in a storage computer that draws approximately 70-80 W. The timing chain uses a Rakon oven-controlled crystal oscillator as a timing reference while a time-interval counter measures its drift relative to a GPS reference with approximately 60 ps resolution. This is the first deployment of an RFSoC-based VLBI backend and precision-timing system on a stratospheric balloon. Ground tests validated the backend, spectrometer, and timing chain. The August 2025 CSA STRATOS flight ended before reaching the target float altitude because of a balloon failure, and as a result no science observations were obtained. For the planned 2027 reflight, we are developing a conduction-cooled data storage computer with 24 TB of NVMe capacity and a direct data path from the 100 GbE interface to the NVMe array.

astro-ph.IM↗