ADAPTIVE OPTICS FOR IN-ORBIT ABERRATION CORRECTION - SPHERICAL-ABERRATION FEASIBILITY STUDY

We investigate the feasibility of using an adaptive mirror for in-orbi t aberration corrections. The advantage of an in situ aberration corre ction of optical components in the space environment is that the mirro r shape can be adjusted in an iterative fashion until the best image i s obtained. Using the actuator spacing, corresponding to one half of t he Nyquist frequency, the Strehl ratio of the corrected wave front imp roves to 0.95 when the mirror is fabricated with 6.5 waves of spherica l aberration. The Strehl ratio decreases to 0.86 when the number of ac tuators is reduced by a factor of 4, ill a two-dimensional adaptive op tics model.