Status of the Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) Adaptive Optics

The Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) is being developed as an upgrade to the Air Force Maui Space Surveillance Site (MSSS) on Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii. It consists of a new 3.6-m diameter telescope in an azimuth-elevation configuration mounted atop a pier approximately 60 ft above the local ground level. A bent-Cassegrain configuration provides for selection between three (3) sensor locations on the telescope trunnion and access to a coudé path through the elevation and azimuth axes to ground level. The coudé optics in the telescope provide a ± 150 μrad field of view over a 0.5 to 5.0 μm spectral band to a 941-actuator adaptive optics system located in the coudé path directly beneath the telescope at ground level (coudé room) which will provide dynamic compensation for atmospheric turbulence effects so that a significantly improved image quality may be achieved. A switching mirror located at the output of the adaptive optics system will provide a capability to direct either a compensated beam, or a beam which bypasses the adaptive optics system, to any of seven (7) optics laboratories concentrically located around the room which contains the adaptive optics system.