Design and manufacture of a lightweight reflective baffle for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter

Karsten Seiferlin; Sumita Chakraborty; Kurt S. Gunderson; Josef Fischer; Benjamin Luthi; Daniele Piazza; Martin Rieder; Martin Sigrist; Nicolas Thomas; Thomas Weigel

doi:10.1117/1.2722314

1 April 2007 Design and manufacture of a lightweight reflective baffle for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter

Karsten Seiferlin, Sumita Chakraborty, Kurt S. Gunderson, Josef Fischer, Benjamin Luthi, Daniele Piazza, Martin Rieder, Martin Sigrist, Nicolas Thomas, Thomas Weigel

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 46, Issue 4, 043003 (April 2007). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2722314

Abstract

The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA), part of the payload of the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission, is designed to point a telescope with a 200-mm aperture toward a surface that can reach 700 K. Furthermore, direct sunlight can shine into the instrument at angles of ≥ 38 deg from the boresight. At Mercury, the solar flux can exceed 14 kW m^-2. A baffle for such conditions must both reduce straylight to the best possible extent and minimize the heat load to the spacecraft, i.e., the sum of absorbed visible light and infrared flux. We describe the design and manufacture, including coating, of a reflective baffle. The baffle is made by diamond turning of aluminum and has a clear aperture of 200 mm, about 300-mm length, and a mass of 716 g.

©(2007) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

Karsten Seiferlin, Sumita Chakraborty, Kurt S. Gunderson, Josef Fischer, Benjamin Luthi, Daniele Piazza, Martin Rieder, Martin Sigrist, Nicolas Thomas, and Thomas Weigel "Design and manufacture of a lightweight reflective baffle for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter," Optical Engineering 46(4), 043003 (1 April 2007). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2722314

Published: 1 April 2007

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