NASA Roman Team Checks Out Main Instrument, Sharpens Telescope’s Focus
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team completed a marathon of activities to fine-tune the observatory’s vision and prepare the primary instrument for routine use. “All of Roman’s sweeping surveys will rely on the Wide Field Instrument,” said Dave Hickey, a Wide Field Instrument systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. […] The post NASA Roman Team…
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope team has finished a series of tests to fine-tune the observatory’s primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument. Dave Hickey, a systems engineer, explained that this instrument is crucial for the telescope’s surveys, including studies of dark matter and dark energy. The Wide Field Instrument has been activated since September and has undergone individual and collective tests for its 18 detectors, element wheel, calibration system, alignment mechanism, and thermal system.
Matthew Bolcar, the optical systems lead, mentioned that the telescope’s performance was excellent before any adjustments, thanks to thorough preparatory work. The only adjustments needed were minor ones, such as moving the secondary mirror by one-sixteenth of the diameter of a human hair, which drastically improved the instrument’s performance.
The Coronagraph Instrument’s images were initially slightly out of focus, but after calibrating its camera settings and adjusting its deformable mirrors, it now meets the team’s expectations. The Wide Field Instrument’s performance is now nearly 30% better than initially predicted, with an error of only 63 nanometers RMS, far surpassing the 90 nanometers RMS requirement.
This exceptional precision in optics alignment ensures that Roman’s cosmic surveys will produce sharper images than anticipated.
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