The WISE Telescope and Scanner: Design Choices and Hardware Results

L-3 Integrated Optical Systems/SSG designed and built the telescope, aft imager, and scanner for the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) under subcontract to Utah State University/Space Dynamics Laboratory. The WISE mission and collection scheme imparted several driving requirements on the telescope and scanner, including the need for low cost implementation, < 11 Kelvin operation, and the need to back-scan by half a degree during detector integration in order to freeze the line of sight on the sky as the spacecraft pitched in orbit. These requirements led to several unique design and implementation choices for the telescope and scanner. In this paper we highlight several of those design choices as well as lessons learned from the telescope and scanner design, fabrication, and test. WISE, a NASA MIDEX mission within the Explorers program, was managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. WISE launched on December 14, 2009 and is currently operating successfully.