Replication as an alternative approach for large segmented telescopes

Melville P. Ulmer*, Michael Graham, Semyon Vanyman, Steven Varlese, Dean Baker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The next generation of optical/IR telescopes will require large numbers of co-phased mirror segments. Therefore, some form of replication technology is desirable to reduce costs. Electroforming has the advantage that it is a commercially developed technology for replication, and the technology has been widely used for making X-ray mirrors (e.g. XMM-Newton). Composite materials are appealing, since a great deal of development work has been done with composites as well. There are 3 areas that need to be addressed: replication with minimal stress so as to produce a high quality figure; attachment of support of the mirror segment so as to maintain the figure quality; thermal control requirements. Here we present a discussion of the requirements that lead us to select replication as the fabrication technology and the advantages of replication. We report on our first results of making a concave and flat mirrors.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)323-330
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume5382
Issue numberPART 1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004
EventSecond Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes - Backaskog Castle, Sweden
Duration: Sep 9 2003Sep 11 2003

Keywords

  • Composites
  • Electroforming
  • Optics
  • Segmented Telescopes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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