Robust Diffraction-Limited Near-Infrared-To-Near-Ultraviolet Wide-Field Imaging from Stratospheric Balloon-Borne Platforms—Sup
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Robust diffraction-limited near-infrared-to-near- ultraviolet wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms—Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope performance Item Type Article Authors Romualdez, L. Javier; Benton, Steven J.; Brown, Anthony M.; Clark, Paul; Damaren, Christopher J.; Eifler, Tim; Fraisse, Aurelien A.; Galloway, Mathew N.; Gill, Ajay; Hartley, John W.; Holder, Bradley; Huff, Eric M.; Jauzac, Mathilde; Jones, William C.; Lagattuta, David; Leung, Jason S.-Y.; Li, Lun; Luu, Thuy Vy T.; Massey, Richard J.; McCleary, Jacqueline; Mullaney, James; Nagy, Johanna M.; Netterfield, C. Barth; Redmond, Susan; Rhodes, Jason D.; Schmoll, Jürgen; Shaaban, Mohamed M.; Sirks, Ellen; Tam, Sut-Ieng Citation Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 034501 (2020); https:// doi.org/10.1063/1.5139711 DOI 10.1063/1.5139711 Publisher AMER INST PHYSICS Journal REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS Rights Copyright © 2020 Author(s). Download date 03/10/2021 18:05:34 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Version Final published version Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/640970 Robust diffraction-limited near-infrared- to-near-ultraviolet wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms— Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope performance Cite as: Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 034501 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5139711 Submitted: 22 November 2019 . Accepted: 10 February 2020 . Published Online: 03 March 2020 L. Javier Romualdez , Steven J. Benton , Anthony M. Brown, Paul Clark, Christopher J. Damaren, Tim Eifler , Aurelien A. Fraisse, Mathew N. Galloway, Ajay Gill, John W. Hartley, Bradley Holder, Eric M. Huff, Mathilde Jauzac , William C. Jones , David Lagattuta , Jason S.-Y. Leung, Lun Li , Thuy Vy T. Luu, Richard J. Massey , Jacqueline McCleary, James Mullaney, Johanna M. Nagy , C. Barth Netterfield, Susan Redmond, Jason D. Rhodes, Jürgen Schmoll, Mohamed M. Shaaban, Ellen Sirks, and Sut-Ieng Tam ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN Influence of extraction grid on ion beam characteristics Review of Scientific Instruments 91, 033304 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5128599 Measurement of quadrupolar asymmetry in prototype rod-type radio frequency quadrupole linac for protons Review of Scientific Instruments 91, 033306 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5140630 A multi-stop time-of-flight spectrometer for the measurement of positron annihilation- induced electrons in coincidence with the Doppler-shifted annihilation gamma photon Review of Scientific Instruments 91, 033903 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5140789 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 034501 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5139711 91, 034501 © 2020 Author(s). Review of ARTICLE Scientific Instruments scitation.org/journal/rsi Robust diffraction-limited near-infrared-to-near-ultraviolet wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms—Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope performance Cite as: Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 034501 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5139711 Submitted: 22 November 2019 • Accepted: 10 February 2020 • Published Online: 3 March 2020 L. Javier Romualdez,1,a) Steven J. Benton,1 Anthony M. Brown,2,3 Paul Clark,2 Christopher J. Damaren,4 Tim Eifler,5 Aurelien A. Fraisse,1 Mathew N. Galloway,6 Ajay Gill,7,8 John W. Hartley,9 Bradley Holder,4,8 Eric M. Huff,10 Mathilde Jauzac,3,11 William C. Jones,1 David Lagattuta,3 Jason S.-Y. Leung,7,8 Lun Li,1 Thuy Vy T. Luu,1 Richard J. Massey,2,3,11 Jacqueline McCleary,10 James Mullaney,12 Johanna M. Nagy,8 C. Barth Netterfield,7,8,9 Susan Redmond,1 Jason D. Rhodes,10 Jürgen Schmoll,2 Mohamed M. Shaaban,8,9 Ellen Sirks,11 and Sut-Ieng Tam3 AFFILIATIONS 1 Department of Physics, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA 2 Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CfAI), Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom 3 Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom 4 University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), 4925 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T6, Canada 5 Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA 6 Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo 0315, Norway 7 Department of Astronomy, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada 8 Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada 9 Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2M8, Canada 10Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA 11 Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom 12Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Sheffield, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected] ABSTRACT At a fraction of the total cost of an equivalent orbital mission, scientific balloon-borne platforms, operating above 99.7% of the Earth’s atmo- sphere, offer attractive, competitive, and effective observational capabilities—namely, space-like seeing, transmission, and backgrounds— which are well suited for modern astronomy and cosmology. The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SUPERBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m telescope capable of exploiting these observing conditions in order to provide exquisite imagingthrough- out the near-infrared to near-ultraviolet. It utilizes a robust active stabilization system that has consistently demonstrated a 48 mas 1σ sky-fixed pointing stability over multiple 1 h observations at float. This is achieved by actively tracking compound pendulations via a three-axis gim- balled platform, which provides sky-fixed telescope stability at < 500 mas and corrects for field rotation, while employing high-bandwidth tip/tilt optics to remove residual disturbances across the science imaging focal plane. SUPERBIT’s performance during the 2019 commission- ing flight benefited from a customized high-fidelity science-capable telescope designed with an exceptional thermo- and opto-mechanical Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 034501 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5139711 91, 034501-1 Published under license by AIP Publishing Review of ARTICLE Scientific Instruments scitation.org/journal/rsi stability as well as a tightly constrained static and dynamic coupling between high-rate sensors and telescope optics. At the currently demonstrated level of flight performance, SUPERBIT capabilities now surpass the science requirements for a wide variety of experiments in cosmology, astrophysics, and stellar dynamics. Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5139711., s I. INTRODUCTION SPT-SZ.5,6 In combination with x-ray or Sunyaev-Zoldovich (SZ) This paper presents the sub-arcsecond pointing and 50 mas measurements, the SUPERBIT weak lensing maps of actively merg- image stabilization capabilities of the Super-pressure Balloon-borne ing clusters would also be valuable for dark matter studies or calibra- Imaging Telescope (SUPERBIT) for diffraction-limited, wide-field tion of cluster–mass observable relations. In addition, SUPERBIT’s near-infrared (NIR) to near-ultraviolet (NUV) imaging from a diffraction-limited imaging can mitigate de-blending calibration of the ground-based cosmological surveys like the Large Synoptic Sur- stratospheric balloon. This first section introduces the science objec- 7 tives that motivate these imaging capabilities, with a high-level vey Telescope (LSST), reducing that particular source of system- atic uncertainty and leading to tighter constraints on cosmological description of the system architecture from the perspective of 8 mechanical, optical, and control systems engineering. SectionII parameters. presents SUPERBIT’s best achieved performance to date, from the Given the ability for balloon-borne platforms like SUPERBIT 2019 telescope commissioning flight; Sec. III analyzes the key tech- to readily access, quickly implement, and flight verify cutting-edge nical improvements that enabled this performance, learned through technologies, high impact science goals can be realized at a fraction earlier engineering test flights; and Sec.IV predicts how the as-built the economic and development time cost typical of equivalent space- performance could influence an observing strategy during SUPER- borne implementations, with expected survey efficiencies rivaling BIT’s upcoming long duration flight. The detailed science fore- similar ground-based applications. In addition to cluster cosmology, casts, based on the as-built performance, are being prepared for an some examples of prospective science goals enabled by the SUPER- accompanying forecasting paper. BIT include probes of dark matter sub-structure, strong gravita- tional lensing constraints on the Hubble constant, studies of galax- ies’ morphological evolution, UV-bright stars, and exo-planetary A. Scientific applications atmospheres. The SUPERBIT experiment is a balloon-borne telescope ′ ′ designed to provide diffraction-limited imaging over a 25 × 17 B. SUPERBIT architecture field-of-view (approximately 36 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys) with an on-sky resolu- The following is a brief description of the SUPERBIT instru- ment flown on the September 2019 science telescope commissioning