Status of the preliminary design of the NGS WFS subsystem of MAORY

Abstract

The Natural Guide Star (NGS) Wavefront Sensor (WFS) sub-system of MAORY implements 3 Low-Order and Reference (LOR) WFS needed by the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system. Each LOR WFS has 2 main purposes: first, to sense the fast low-order modes that are affected by atmospheric anisoplanatism and second, to de-trend the LGS measurements from the slow spatial and temporal drifts of the Sodium layer. These features require to implement 2 different WFS sharing the same NGS and optical breadboard but being respectively a 2×2 Shack-Hartman Sensor (SHS) working at infrared wavelengths and a slow 10×10 SHS at visible bands. The NG WFS sub-system also provides a common support plate for the 3 WFS and their control electronics and cabling. The paper summarizes the status of the preliminary design of the LOR Module on the road to the MAORY Preliminary Design Review (PDR), focusing mainly on the description and analysis of the opto-mechanical arrangement foreseen for the NGS WFS sub-system. Performances and the design trade-offs of the NGS WFS sub-system are analyzed in a complementary paper. First, the requirement imposed by MAORY AO system are discussed. Then the paper gives an overview of the opto-mechanical arrangement for the main components of the sub-system: the support plate, the 3 WFS units and their interfaces to the instrument rotator. In the end the paper discusses the sub-system pointing and WFE budgets derived from different analyses. The design concept for the electronic devices of the sub-system, the cabinet arrangement and the cabling sheme are given in second complementary paper.