Wave-front sensing for space active optics: Rascasse project

The payloads for Earth Observation and Universe Science are currently based on very stiff opto-mechanical structures with very tight tolerances. The introduction of active optics in such an instrument would relax the constraints on the thermo-mechanical architecture and on the mirrors polishing. A reduction of the global mass/cost of the telescope is therefore expected. Active optics is based on two key-components: the wave-front sensor and the wave-front corrector.