Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) is currently preparing for the launch of the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM) satellite, the successor to the Buccaneer Risk Mitigation Mission (BRMM). BMM hosts a high-frequency (HF) antenna and receiver to contribute to the calibration of the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN). Verification of the successful deployment and stability of the large HF antenna is critical to the success of the mission. A bespoke deployable optics payload has been developed by DSTG to fulfil the dual purpose of direct verification of the deployed state of the HF antenna and capturing images of the Earth through a rotatable, dual-surfaced mirror and a variable-focus liquid lens. The payload advances research at DSTG in several fields of space engineering, including deployable mechanisms, precision actuation devices, radiation-tolerant electronics, advanced metal polishing and optical metrology. This paper discusses the payload design, material selection, trade-offs considered for the deployable optics payload and preliminary test results.

The One-Ångstrom Microscope (OÅM) project was established at the NCEM to produce images at sub-Ångstrom resolution (O'Keefe, 1993). The project was implemented using a Philips CM300FEG/UT with hardware modifications designed to correct objective lens three-fold astigmatism and extend information transfer to 0.8 Ångstrom (O'Keefe et al., 2001a). A Gatan image filter (GIFTM) was used to bring the image magnification to more than three million times at the CCD camera to provide adequate real-space sampling.

Phase-contrast imaging in the HRTEM produces images with peaks at atom positions by extracting the spatial distribution of the relative phase from the electron wave. Usually, the electron wave is imaged by direct interference of diffracted beams at optimum focus (Scherzer, 1949).