TMTracer: A modeling tool for the TMT alignment and phasing system

Abstract

The Alignment and Phasing System (APS) is one of the key parts of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) active optics system, with the responsibility for evaluating and correcting the pre-adaptive optics wavefront delivered by the telescope. APS is a high complexity system comprising a multi-channel wavefront-sensing instrument that produces as many as 250,000 discrete measurements and control software that delivers commands to about 12,000 active optics system actuators. The APS software is designed to guide the instrument development and predict its performance via simulation and also ultimately to serve the physical instrument itself. The software is built around a modeling tool we have developed called TMTracer, which is tailored to the optical alignment of extremely large segmented telescopes. We will present the underlying philosophy of TMTracer, as well as its architecture and sample simulation results that demonstrate its capabilities. Show more