12 August 2021 Design and material selection of optomechanical systems for the extreme environment on Mars
Yichao Yang, Zhixin Yan, Jiayi Shen, Yaowu Kuang, Wenzhi Wan, Jianjun Jia, Chongfei Liu, Jun Chen, Botao Wang, Tao Bao, Zhenqiang Zhang, Weiming Xu, Rong Shu
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Mars surface composition detector (MarSCoDe) is a scientific instrument suite onboard the Mars rover of the “Tianwen-1” mission, which uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and shortwave infrared spectroscopy to detect the composition of soils and rocks at the surface of Mars. The optical head unit (OHU) is the core hardware of MarSCoDe, containing a Cassegrain telescope and other optical modules for lasers generation and signals transmission. The unit lacks thermal control resources and is located outside the rover’s cabin, which will directly face the Martian surface drastic temperature changes. We introduce the optomechanical designs that realize the lightweight and high thermal stability of the OHU optical system, especially the designs and implementations of the semiopen primary mirror based on silicon carbide and the fully closed optical bench based on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. Meanwhile, the advantages and difficulties of silicon carbide, long carbon fiber-reinforced silicon carbide composites, and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer materials used for small and compact optomechanical systems are discussed. Subsequently, the environmental adaptability of the telescope system of OHU was studied through analytical and experimental methods, which show that it can achieve the required optical performance over a temperature range of approximately 100°C.

© 2021 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 2329-4124/2021/$28.00 © 2021 SPIE
Yichao Yang, Zhixin Yan, Jiayi Shen, Yaowu Kuang, Wenzhi Wan, Jianjun Jia, Chongfei Liu, Jun Chen, Botao Wang, Tao Bao, Zhenqiang Zhang, Weiming Xu, and Rong Shu "Design and material selection of optomechanical systems for the extreme environment on Mars," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 7(3), 034003 (12 August 2021). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.7.3.034003
Received: 12 February 2021; Accepted: 27 July 2021; Published: 12 August 2021
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KEYWORDS
Mirrors

Optical benches

Silicon carbide

Telescopes

Mars

Temperature metrology

Carbon

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