Deployable optical telescope ground demonstration

The deployable optical telescope, the second project of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Integrated Ground Demonstration Laboratory, will demonstrate critical integration technologies associated with the next generation of beam expanders for space-based laser systems and large apertures for tactical surveillance systems. AFRL's development will be carried in cooperation with the contractor community and have direct ties to the future program offices that will utilize the DOT technologies. A flow down of total wavefront error acceptable for future operational systems has been used to derive DOT experiment requirements. The sub-scale DOT will demonstrate the initial deployment of a segmented primary and secondary tower in a 1-g laboratory environment.