Assembly of the Light Distribution Unit Started

The high-resolution image produced by the 1-m main telescope needs to be stabilized for residual jitter and distributed to the three scientific instruments. This is achieved by the Image Stabilisation and Light Distribution unit (ISLiD). The assembly of ISLiD started now in the clean rooms of MPS.

The main telescope of Sunrise is capable of producing diffracion limited images of solar features as small as 35 km. Vibrations of the gondola and residual image aberrations need to be measured and corrected in real time during the flight, before the light is sorted in wavelength and sent to the scientific instruments SUSI, TuMag and SCIP.

The carbon fiber based structure arrived at MPS and passed successfully the incoming inspection. The mounting of the optical components has started. The challenge is the accurate positioning and alignemnt of all optical components. This is achieved in one of the big MPS cleanrooms using sophisticated ground support equipment.