The MAPS Adaptive Secondary Mirror: First Light, Laboratory Work, and Achievements

TL;DR

The paper details the design, laboratory testing, and initial achievements of the MAPS adaptive secondary mirror, a key component in advanced exoplanet imaging systems, highlighting technical progress and challenges.

Contribution

It presents the development and laboratory validation of a novel adaptive secondary mirror for exoplanet imaging, marking significant engineering advancements over previous systems.

Findings

Successful laboratory preparation for on-sky testing

Identification of technical issues during initial runs

Steps taken to mitigate engineering challenges

Abstract

The MMT Adaptive Optics exoPlanet Characterization System (MAPS) is a comprehensive update to the first generation MMT adaptive optics system (MMTAO), designed to produce a facility class suite of instruments whose purpose is to image nearby exoplanets. The system's adaptive secondary mirror (ASM), although comprised in part of legacy components from the MMTAO ASM, represents a major leap forward in engineering, structure and function. The subject of this paper is the design, operation, achievements and technical issues of the MAPS adaptive secondary mirror. We discuss laboratory preparation for on-sky engineering runs, the results of those runs and the issues we discovered, what we learned about those issues in a follow-up period of laboratory work, and the steps we are taking to mitigate them.