Adaptive Petal Reflector: In-Lab Software Configurable Optical Testing System Metrology and Modal Wavefront Reconstruction.

This paper addresses two aspects of the metrology of spherical, petal polymer reflectors which are part of an effort by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop actively controlled foldable reflectors, enabling larger apertures on CubeSats and small satellites. The first problem is that of measuring the surface figure error of the spherical reflector alone during the development phase, and to assess the quality before assembling the telescope (large stroke, low accuracy). The SCOTS (Software Configurable Optical Testing System) appears to provide a fast and satisfactory solution to this problem.