A Deployable Primary Mirror for Space Telescopes
- Author:
- Phelps, James E.
- Published:
- September 1999.
- Physical Description:
- 1 electronic document
- Additional Creators:
- Kasl, Eldon P.
Dyer, Jack E.
Caudle, David A.
Tam, Anthony
Lake, Mark S.
Escobedo, Javier - Access Online:
- hdl.handle.net
- Restrictions on Access:
- Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
- Summary:
- NASA Langley Research Center, Composite Optics, Inc., and Nyma/ADF have developed jointly a deployable primary mirror for space telescopes that combines over five years of research on deployment of optical-precision structures and over ten years of development of fabrication techniques for optical-precision composite mirror panels and structures. The deployable mirror is directly applicable to a broad class of non-imaging "lidar" (light direction and ranging) telescopes whose figure-error requirements are in the range of one to ten microns RMS. Furthermore, the mirror design can be readily modified to accommodate imaging-quality reflector panels and active panel-alignment control mechanisms for application to imaging telescopes. The present paper: 1) describes the deployable mirror concept; 2) explains the status of the mirror development; and 3) provides some technical specifications for a 2.55-m-diameter, proof-of-concept mirror.
- Collection:
- NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
- Note:
- Document ID: 19990093139.
NASA/TM-1999-209682.
NAS 1.15:209682.
L-17881. - Terms of Use and Reproduction:
- No Copyright.
- Access Online:
- hdl.handle.net
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