Contributions to technology and techniques for ground-based and space-based astronomy synthesis of EDAC codecs, AOLI and COELI

Resumen

Resumen de la tesis: The present dissertation covers the contributions made by the author in the context of three astronomy-related projects, namely: the Euclid satellite, the AOLI (Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager) instrument for ground telescopes and the COELI (COvariancE of Lucky Images) algorithm for the post-processing of astronomical images. All the contributions have been made in the field of engineering, solving technological problems that will help the astronomers to achieve the specific scientific goals of each project. Euclid is a space mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) whose scientific objective is to map the geometry of the dark Universe. The author of this dissertation was involved in the design of the control unit of the infrared instrument on-board the satellite. Such involvement derived in the creation of a new line of research aimed to improve the reliability of digital circuits in space. The strategy that was followed to reach this objective was to optimize the implementation of the EDAC (Error Detection and Correction) codecs, a kind of very recurring element that is used to protect volatile memories from the hazardous radiation that exists in the space environment. AOLI is an instrument for ground telescopes that has been designed to image the skies with resolutions even finer that the ones that can be achieved from space telescopes with the absence of the turbulent atmosphere. In order to make this possible, AOLI combines two well-known high-resolution techniques that had never been specifically combined in an instrument before: Adaptive Optics (AO) and Lucky Imaging (LI). The author of this thesis has been in charge of the real-time control of the AO subsystem of AOLI, which involved the use of a novel wavefront sensor that had not been used before in an astronomical application. The last of the contributions, named COELI, is also related to high-angular resolution astronomy, but following a post-processing approach. This new algorithm takes advantage of the statistical properties of atmospheric distortion so as to avoid any residual halo in the resulting images, as opposed to what would happen with conventional Lucky Imaging. The results of the executed tests prove that this newer technique provides enhanced contrast capabilities for detecting faint objects very close to a host star. http://repositorio.bib.upct.es/dspace/