Characterization of Carbon Dioxide on Icy Moons: Laboratory Ice Analogues and JWST Observations

Mixed ices of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂O), prevalent in cometary nuclei, solar system satellites, and interstellar dust particles, have posed a persistent challenge in understanding the fundamental behaviors of carbon dioxide in these icy environments. Specifically, the intriguing shift in the CO₂...

Design, Construction and Validation of a secondary mirror deployment mechanism for a thermal infrared space telescope

The miniaturization of satellites throughout the decades is mostly contributed by the advancement in electronics and technology. Volume and mass of a satellite are factors of the launch costs. The Deployable Space Telescope (DST) program<br/>aims to reduce the stowed volume of the telescope and subsequently reduce the costs.<br/>Telescopes have...

Interface Design for On-Orbit Assembly of Space Telescopes

Traditional spacecraft design has reached the limits of size and volume that current launchers allow. This is especially true for space telescopes (James Webb), where size is directly correlated with performance. A solution to this is on-orbit assembly, however some enabling technologies are insufficiently developed. One of the most important...

Optical appearance of ices in planet forming discs

This thesis aims to improve our understanding of the role of ices in planet forming discs, known as protoplanetary discs. Computer models of such discs have been used extensively by the community to understand and predict the observational data. It has always been a challenge to observe ices in the discs and their optical appearance is largely...

Design of a Deployable Baffle for the Deployable Space Telescope

The purpose of the thesis was to design a deployable thermal shielding baffle for the Deployable Space Telescope to reduce thermal gradients on the optical elements. As a result of a trade-off, the deployment was chosen to be based on an inflatable structure. The baffle consists of aluminium-kapton booms that form a cylindrical shape, and are...

Thermal Modelling & Analysis of the Deployable Space Telescope

The Deployable Space Telescope (DST) project aims at producing a competitive telescope by using segmented deployable light weighted optics which reduces launch volume and mass, and thus launch costs. Due to the criticality of heat management to the performance of the telescope, a thermal model had to be built in order to determine the expected...

Asteroid characterization through serendipitous detection by the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope

The interest in asteroids is increasing, due to their promising clues on the origin of the Solar System, e.g. their albedos and sizes can provide insight into the protosolar nebula. The new scientific mission scheduled to launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), provides an opportunity for observation of asteroids. In this thesis,...

Design of the Secondary Mirror Support Structure for the Deployable Space Telescope

The thesis discusses the design of the secondary mirror support structure for the deployable space telescope. In the thesis the entire support system is considered, including system layout and mirror interface. A selection of hinge concepts were identified and final concepts were selected in trade-offs. The mid hinge was selected to be an...

Design of an Aberration Correction System for a Deployable Space Telescope

Launch costs for high-resolution space telescopes for Earth observation can be reduced when the telescope mirrors are made deployable. However, such a system is subject to optical aberrations that decreases image quality. To counter these aberrations, an Aberration Correction System (ACS) is proposed that uses a deformable mirror (DM) which is...