Adaptive optics for in-orbit aberration correction: spherical aberration feasibility study

We investigate the feasibility of using an adaptive mirror for in-orbit aberration corrections. The advantage of an in situ aberration correction of optical components in the space environment is that the mirror shape can be adjusted in an iterative fashion until the best image is obtained. Using the actuator spacing, corresponding to one half of the Nyquist frequency, the Strehl ratio of the corrected wave front improves to 0.95 when the mirror is fabricated with 6.5 waves of spherical aberration. The Strehl ratio decreases to 0.86 when the number of actuators is reduced by a factor of 4, in a two-dimensional adaptive optics model.