Agile beam director system design: ROBS/TCATS optical tracker

The ROBS tracking telescope was invented and developed at TTC to provide a high acceleration,k large aperture beam steering system for rapid pointing to multiple objects. The optical system consists of a fast, oversized spherical primary mirror with the 50 cm aperture stop at the center of curvature of the primary mirror (CCP). A lightweight secondary mirror selects the instantaneous field of view by scanning over the petzval image surface of the primary mirror. The secondary mirror is gimbaled about the CCP on a rigid, lightweight mast. The system's symmetry about the CCP simplifies the optical and mechanical design and provides very rapid retargeting over a 30 degree field of regard for multiple target tracking. Field corrector and pupil relay optics inside the support tube collimate the light through coude' optics to passive sensor and laser radar optics. The 2-sphere, 2-asphere aplanatic, anastigmat all-reflective design corrects the 9.1 mr of spherical aberration from the F/1 primary and provides 10 microradian resolution over a 5 mr field of view. The system incorporates near field focus adjustment to provide high resolution imaging and laser ranging over a large volume of space. Two 50 cm systems have been built and demonstrated tracking multiple targets in the field. This paper describes the opto-mechanical design and demonstrated system capabilities.