Case study comparing large, compact, and subcompact three-mirror anastigmat telescopes

The comparison of various entrance pupil diameter (EPD) sizes of space based off-axis three mirror anastigmat (OA-TMA) of both physical and modeled systems. The overall goal is to determine the metrology effects on the image, advantages, disadvantages, and scaling ability of smaller and larger TMA telescopes. In this study, the subcompact OA-TMA telescope was designed first and scaled up to the large OA-TMA. To maintain consistency in the study only the diameters of the mirrors and subsequently the spacing of the mirrors and radii of curvature were scaled with all other variables remaining consistent, such as mirror substrate, detector type, and field of view (FOV). In summary, the metrology analyzed for each OA-TMA is utilized to evaluate the differences and advantages for each size of telescope.