Case Study: NASA achieves robust on-orbit instrument calibration with Quartus Engineering STOP analysis

NASA validates Arcstone instruments across a 40°C thermal swing with Quartus Engineering

The customer, NASA, faced the challenge of ensuring its Arcstone mission instruments could maintain calibration accuracy while operating in an extreme thermal environment with temperature variations exceeding 40°C. To assess the design's robustness and highlight potential improvements, NASA engaged vendor Quartus Engineering to perform a Structural, Thermal, and Optical Performance (STOP) analysis.

Quartus Engineering developed detailed finite element models of the instruments and conducted a comprehensive thermal analysis. Their solution involved mapping calculated temperatures to structural models to determine distortions, then using proprietary Q-STOP software to calculate Zernike coefficients for optical performance analysis in Zemax. Through this collaborative effort with NASA and Resonon, Quartus Engineering helped finalize designs for both instruments that were proven to meet all performance requirements.

NASA