NASA Sharpens Roman Telescope Focus, Lifting Wide Field Instrument Performance Nearly 30%
Updated
Updated · Science@NASA · Oct 14
NASA Sharpens Roman Telescope Focus, Lifting Wide Field Instrument Performance Nearly 30%
2 articles · Updated · Science@NASA · Oct 14
Summary
Roman’s Wide Field Instrument now has just 63 nanometers RMS optical error, beating its 90-nanometer image-quality requirement after NASA completed focus tuning and instrument checkout.
Engineers reached that result by testing the instrument’s 18 detectors, filters, calibration LEDs, alignment mechanism and thermal controls, then moving the secondary mirror by about one-sixteenth of a human hair.
The same alignment work also corrected the Coronagraph Instrument’s slight blur; its images now meet expectations, with teams still tuning camera settings and deformable mirrors before light-blocking demonstrations in coming weeks.
Roman launched on Aug. 30, and NASA said the near-perfect in-space alignment shows ground testing by Goddard, L3Harris and BAE accurately predicted how the observatory would behave after launch.