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AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank)2. REPORT DATE This report results from a contract tasking Research Institute for Laser Physics as follows: The aim of this work is to improve low-weight membrane mirror characteristics intended for relaying laser communication beams in space. Such systems would use a non-linear-optical corrector to correct surface figure and other optical aberrations. The analytical part of this project is aimed at estimating the feasibility of designing the mirrors based on the pre-shaped membranes. This evaluation will give a clear understanding of the approaches to forming super-light mirrors as well as of the problems anticipated in creating this new generation of space mirrors. In the course of the experimental work, a low-weight mirror model based on the pre-shaped membrane will be fabricated, and its optical characteristics will be studied. It is expected that the characteristics predicted theoretically will be observed experimentally. The first quarterly report on project 2103p (ISTC 00-7032), entitled "Study of pre-shaped membrane mirrors and electrostatic mirrors with nonlinear-optical correction."
Large telescopes and super light mirrors OverviewNowadays a number of scientific and practical fields of activity need solutions of the problems requiring high-resolution of both ground and space based telescopes with substantial space penetrating power, namely ones with large aperture mirrors.First of all, these high-resolution physical instruments are required for astronomic observations. For example, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA states the strategic tasks of astronomic observations as follows: "We must use the universe as a laboratory -a unique laboratory -for probing the laws of physics in regimes not accessible on Earth, such as the very early universe or near the event horizon of a black hole." "We must search for life beyond the Earth and, if it is found, determine its nature and its distribution. And finally, we must develop a conceptual framework that accounts for all that we have observed," the report says [1]. Note that at present the requirements to a telescope for some tasks [2] are the resolution of the order of 10 -3 arcsec and space penetrating power of stars of the 35th-38th magnitude. This means that a primary mirror must be of the order of 100m in diameter.Obviously, high-resolution...
