A study of a compact reimaging freeform Three Mirror Anastigmat suitable for thermal infrared space imaging application in small satellites is performed, and shows that for such highly constrained systems, freeform optics must be used.
Freeform surfaces are a revolution in the field of spatial imaging because they allow the correction of optical aberrations in off-axis systems. Freeform surfaces are defined as non-rotationally symmetric surfaces, which also cannot be described as an off-axis part of a conicoid. The use of such surfaces can also enable to increase performances, such as the field of view, F-number or compactness of off-axis, fully reflective telescopes, and is thus interesting for nanosatellite imaging applications. In this paper, we will present a proof of concept for a fast, compact and well-corrected freeform Three Mirror Anastigmat (TMA) design suited for nanosatellite infrared thermal imaging using an uncooled micro-bolometer. The performance and tolerance analysis will be presented, along with an analysis of the mirrors’ shape and surface quality using an industrial surface characterisation tool. The consequences of the mirrors’ shape error on the optical quality will also be discussed, as well as a method to compensate for the loss in image quality induced by these shape defects.
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