Performance evaluations of the ATST secondary mirror

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) has a 4.24m off-axis primary mirror designed to deliver diffraction-limited images of the sun. Its baseline secondary mirror (M2) design uses a 0.65m diameter Silicon Carbide mirror mounted kinematically by a bi-pod flexure mechanism at three equally spaced locations. Unlike other common telescopes, the ATST M2 is to be exposed to a significant solar heat loading. A thermal management system will be developed to accommodate the solar loading and minimize "mirror seeing effect" by controlling the temperature difference between the M2 optical surface and the ambient air at the site. Thermo-elastic analyses for steady state thermal behaviors of the ATST secondary mirror was performed using finite element analysis by I-DEASTM and PCFRINGETM for the optical analysis. We examined extensive heat transfer simulation cases and their results are discussed. The goal of this study is to evaluate the optical performances of M2 using thermal models and mechanical models. Thermal responses from the models enable us to manipulate time dependent thermal loadings to synthesize the operational environment for the design and development of TMS.