A cryogenically cooled survey telescope for k-band astronomy
Location: Dome C, Antarctica
The orange surveyor for the red sky
Cryoscope is a diffraction-limited, cryogenically cooled telescope for Antarctica, for K-band astronomy
Cryoscope Pathfinder
Cryoscope Pathfinder is a fifth-scale prototype designed as a precursor mission to retire the technological risks prior to its full-scale implementation.
Cryoscope Pathfinder is in development phase at Caltech Institute of Technology. The team is preparing to send the telescope to Antarctica at the end of 2025.
Design features
Cryoscope pathfinder is a diffraction-limited 260mm aperture, wide-field NIR telescope that uses optics mounted in a cryogenic environment to minimize background radiation from thermal emission.
Primary Mirror on Internal Barrel
The primary mirror assembly is an all-Aluminum structure. The light-weighted, diamond turned mirror is supported in its cell through radial flexures. The axial alignment is addressed through shimming and centration is achieved through radial nudgers.
The radial thermal strain on the Aluminum mirror causes a change in the radius of curvature, resulting in defocus. Radial resistive heaters are incorporated to allow for this correction and achieve fine focus.
Focal Plane Assembly consists of field flattener and detector mount and 3 spider vanes all machined from a single piece.
The field flattener consists of a 3” fused silica filter, and two lenses (L1- ZnS and L2 – fused silica). One of the key design considerations is its radially compact footprint, to minimize the beam obstruction. This consideration drives several design decisions such the use of small (M2) fasteners, springs, and no radial flexures. Instead of locating features and pins, the coaxiality between the spider hub and field flattener is achieved using tight tolerances on the outer diameter of the mating section of field flattener (L1/L2 cell). The field flattener cell connects to the spider using 3 fasteners.
Most Recent
Cryoscope is in development and testing phase at Cahill Center of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Cryoscope mission
What is Cryoscope?
Cryoscope is a diffraction-limited, cryogenically cooled telescope for Antarctica. It will have 50 sq. deg. field-of-view and 1.2m aperture. Leveraging the dark Antarctic sky and minimizing telescope thermal emission, Cryoscope achieves unprecedented deep, wide, fast and red observations, matching and exceeding volumetric survey speeds from the Ultraviolet Explorer, Vera Rubin Observatory, and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
By providing coverage beyond wavelengths of 2microns, we aim to create the most comprehensive dynamic movie of the most obscured reaches of the Universe. Cryoscope will be a dedicated discovery engine for electromagnetic emission from coalescing compact binaries, Earth-like exoplanets orbiting cold stars, and multiple facets of time-domain, stellar and solar system science.
