Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: prototype design and testing

TL;DR

The paper presents the design and testing of a prototype for PANOSETI, a wide-field instrument using modular Fresnel telescopes to detect fast transient signals across optical and near-infrared wavelengths for SETI.

Contribution

It introduces the modular Fresnel telescope units for PANOSETI and details their mechanical design and testing under various environmental conditions.

Findings

Prototype modules maintain optical characteristics under different conditions

Design effectively accounts for temperature and humidity variations

Modules achieve desired sky coverage and resolution

Abstract

The Pulsed All-sky Near-infrared Optical Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (PANOSETI) is an instrument program that aims to search for fast transient signals (nano-second to seconds) of artificial or astrophysical origin. The PANOSETI instrument objective is to sample the entire observable sky during all observable time at optical and near-infrared wavelengths over 300 - 1650 nm$^1$. The PANOSETI instrument is designed with a number of modular telescope units using Fresnel lenses ($\sim$0.5m) arranged on two geodesic domes in order to maximize sky coverage$^2$. We present the prototype design and tests of these modular Fresnel telescope units. This consists of the design of mechanical components such as the lens mounting and module frame. One of the most important goals of the modules is to maintain the characteristics of the Fresnel lens under a variety of operating conditions. We discuss how we account for a range of operating temperatures, humidity, and module orientations in our design in order to minimize undesirable changes to our focal length or angular resolution.