Advanced space telescopes which will eventually replace the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will have 8-20 m diameter apertures. Primary mirrors (PM's) of these dimensions will fold to fit into the space launcher. By necessity, these mirrors will be extremely lightweight and flexible. The historical approaches to mirror designs, where the mirror is made as rigid as possible to maintain figure and to serve as the anchor for the entire telescope, can no longer be applied. New design concepts and verifications will depend entirely on analytical methods to predict optical performance. Integrated modeling of the structural, thermal, and optical performance of such mirrors is becoming the tool for advanced space mirror designs. This paper discusses some of the tasks and study results which are currently the basis for the design and integrated modeling studies ofthe Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST).
This paper presents a status of the development of the 1 6meter hybrid mirror demonstrator for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) Program. The COl design approach for the NGST program combines the optical performance of glass, with the high specific stiffhess capabilities of composite materials. This structural hybridization significantly reduces the area! density of mirror substrate, compared to state-of-the-art all-glass mirrors, while maintaining operational robustness. The foundation technologies being exploited in the development of the hybrid mirror ( Figure 1) focus upon precision composite materials for cryogenic operation, and non-contact optical processing (ion figuring) of the lightweight mirror surface. The NGST Mirror System Demonstrator (NMSD) has been designed and built by Composite Optics, Inc. (COT) and is being optically processed by REOSC. The mirror is currently being (optically) tested at cryogenic temperatures at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) X-Ray Calibration Facility (XRCF). This paper summarizes system requirements, design description, sub-component and component demonstration results, and the technology status for the NGST Mirror System Demonstrator (NMSD) program. The sponsors of these efforts are the NASA Marshall and Goddard Space Flight Centers.
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