Design of a Membrane Aperture Deployable Structure

Abstract

Ultra-lightweight, membrane primary mirrors offer a promising future for space telescope technology. However, the advantages of the lightweight structure of the mirrors are restricted by an extremely high susceptibility to microyield. Hence, careful packaging of the membranes is required when transporting mirrors of this type into space. Four packaging models, a cylindrical roll, an umbrella model, a multi-cut model and a single cut model, are presented and compared with each other. Factors such as curvature of the compressed membrane, stability after deployment, and the size of the launch vehicle are considered. All four packaging models appear to be feasible with certain materials and hence warrant physical testing.

Membrane Mirrors in Space Telescopes

“…Such a payload could even be launched from one of the smaller, less-expensive launch vehicles. 83 Membrane and thin-shell mirrors can thus achieve much greater packaging efficiency than can be realized with rigid mirrors. Figure 19 shows a photo of a 1 m reflector, torus, and struts that were packaged and inflation-deployed from a 12 Â 12 Â 15 cm 3 canister during testing of a planned shuttle-launched satellite experiment.…”