KEYWORDS: Optical correlators, Space operations, Prototyping, Astronomy, Observatories, Detection and tracking algorithms, Data processing, Signal processing, Visibility, Data modeling
The correlator is the key signal processing equipment of a Very Lone Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) synthetic aperture telescope. It receives the mass data collected by the VLBI observatories and produces the visibility function of the target, which can be used to spacecraft position, baseline length measurement, synthesis imaging, and other scientific applications. VLBI data correlation is a task of data intensive and computation intensive. This paper presents the algorithms of two parallel software correlators under multiprocessor environments. A near real-time correlator for spacecraft tracking adopts the pipelining and thread-parallel technology, and runs on the SMP (Symmetric Multiple Processor) servers. Another high speed prototype correlator using the mixed Pthreads and MPI (Massage Passing Interface) parallel algorithm is realized on a small Beowulf cluster platform. Both correlators have the characteristic of flexible structure, scalability, and with 10-station data correlating abilities.
Being able to achieve very high angular resolution, the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) synthetic telescope is
widely used in the deep-space tracking. The software correlator is a novel VLBI data processing technique, which is very
suitable for deep-space exploration. This paper introduces the first 10-station software correlator of the Chinese VLBI
Network (CVN) and its applications. Based on the commercial symmetric multiple processor server, the CVN software
correlator can work in the near real-time and the post processing modes. Besides the normal VLBI data correlation
function, it has the abilities of fast fringe search, multi-channel phase calibration abstraction, high frequency resolution
which are especially useful in space craft tracking. It was successfully used in the European circumlunar explorer joint
tracking experiment and other space craft observations. More than one year operation indicated its characteristic of
flexible structure, reliability, scalability. It will be used in the Chinese lunar and other deep-space exploration projects.
The Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) technique uses small radio telescopes to construct a huge synthetic telescope through earth rotation, resolving details as fine as 0.1 milliarcsecond. This paper introduces the principle of the VLBI synthesis and presents the mathematic model of the powerful high-speed FX type Chinese VLBI Network correlator. The principle of the delay and phase compensation, the signal transformation in the correlator, and the final complex visibility function are also presented, as well as the correlator's block diagram. The model is great helpful in designing and adjusting the FX VLBI correlator. Examples demonstrate how to use the model to judge the output visibility function and analyze the observing station performance and the astronomical line spectrum.
The interference pattern of the optical path difference between an aspherical optical surface and the corresponding best fit spherical surface is the Aspherics Characteristic Interferogram (ACI), which can be used as a template to test aspheric optical surfaces without test plates or null compensation systems. This direct interferometry can be used in the optical shop testing and in the digital phase-shifting spherical Fizeau interferometer to achieve high precise aspheric surface testing automatically. We succeeded in testing several aspheric surfaces by this method. ACI is also the base of phasing segmented mirrors, and six small- segmented mirrors were successfully combinated to a large mirror. If used in the infrared red interferometer, strongly aspheric surfaces with asphericity more than 40micrometers can also be tested. Experiments show that the ACI is a fast, effective aspherical surface measurement technique.
Removal function models play an important role in the computer simulation and the practical Computer Controlled Optical Surfacing. This paper presents a novel general model, which can simulate the removal function of a grinding (polishing) tool with any configuration, as long as the tool runs in dual rotation mode. The removal functions of a dual rotation tool with a single pad or with two pads were calculated by this general model and by the existing single pad and two-pad removal function models, respectively and the simulation results coincide with each other. The grinding & polishing experiments also verify this general model. A set of optimized seven-pad flexible grinding (polishing) tool was developed according to this model. A template function model, which simplified the two-dimension parallel circles tracks programming problem into a one-dimension problem was derived from this model. A Φ300 mm, F5.9 focus lens, with 46 μm aspheric degree was successfully fabricated according to the programming results after 8 hours 43 minutes fine grinding & 15 hours polishing.
For fabricating a high gradient aspherics, we have designed a ZDCCOS complex, which consist of a CNC Polisher and a CQG- II digital wavefront interferometer. The Polisher has 5 degrees of freedom. The computer makes a small tool to move in three dimensions and drive the workpiece to sway, and turn around simultaneously to keep the pad in the normal directions of the workpiece surface. We designed a special dual-rotation tool and presented a new model to calculate the removal function of which. the model was verified by the experiments. The track programming algorithm was also designed to make the tools to move on spatial concentric circles, during the fabrication processes. The work piece was a (Phi) 300 mm, F5.9 focus lens, the aspheric degree of which was up to 46 micrometers . But only after 8 hours 43 minutes continuous fine grinding, and about 15 hours polishing, the surface error was decreased to 1(lambda) (Rms, (lambda) equals 0.6328 micrometers ).
This paper presents a novel and simple photoelectric pressure sensor. The pressure sensing element is a linear capsule with a miniature opaque windowshade on its center. The photo detector is a monolithic dual photodiode. The two photodiodes of this detector are used as reference photodiode and the detection photodiode, respectively. Through this differential structure, the displacement of the windowshade caused by the fluid pressure is picked up, while the influence of the environmental perturbation can be eliminated. The nonlinearity error can be corrected by a single chip computer. This sensor has excellent stability, linearity and high sensitivity as well as good manufacturability. Experiment results show that the minimum detectable pressure is less than 20 Pa with the measurement range of 0 approximately 6 HZ, the nonlinearity error without correction is less than +/- 0.3% within the range of 6000 Pa.
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