Optical Alignment of DORA Telescope: design and description of the laboratory setup

In the current work we illustrate the design of the laboratory setup realized for the optical alignment of a deployable Cassegrain telescope for space applications, in the framework of the DORA (Deployable Optics for Remote sensing Applications) project. After a series of trade-off analyses leading to five different layouts, the best candidate in terms of compactness, reduced payload mass and volume, and minimal obstruction of the secondary mirror structure has been selected [1]. The optical components have been manufactured and the telescope prototype is currently under procurement, planned to be tested in the lab in the next months. We introduce the finite element structural analysis of the supporting frame structure for the installation of the prototype in a vertical configuration in which a laser collimating device will be used to reach the most accurate alignment.