Recent Developments in Structural Composite Mirror Technology for Space Telescopes

Abstract

Lightweight, low-cost, high-precision mirrors are needed to accommodate a number of near-term and far-term submillimeter, space-based astronomical telescopes. These telescopes range in size from 3 to 20 meters, and possibly larger. They will utilize mirrors from 1 to 2 meters in size with surface precision from 1 to 3 μm rms while operating in a thermal environment somewhere between 100 and 200°K. Examples of such potential missions would include the Submillimeter Imager and Line Survey (SMILS) and the Large Deployable Reflector (LDR).