Verifying Mirror Technology for NGST with a Space-Qualified, Cryogenic 3.5 M Mirror

Abstract

The lightweighting and surface accuracy targeted for NGST's 8 m primary mirror has been demonstrated in a 0.5 m prototype. Now a second, 2 m prototype weighing 40 kg in total is being fabricated at the University of Arizona under the NGST NMSD program. It will be tested in cryogenic operation in spring 1999. A third, advanced mirror system demonstrator (AMSD) is needed, the full size of an NGST segment, for flight qualification, including launch survival and extremely high reliability. The 3.5 m mirror, 1/6 the weight of HST's primary, would be made with a 2 mm thick glass face-sheet attached by adjustable screws to a carbon composite support. It would be figured as a fast telescope primary, and fully tested cryogenically to verify closed loop figure stability with simulated infrared starlight. If started in early 1999, this could be completed in 2001. Construction of the NGST mirror panels could then be undertaken on the basis of proven technology, and in time for a 2007 launch. With a diameter of 3.5 m and a weight of only 140 kg, the mirror could be incorporated into a telescope and launched to a high orbit by the Shuttle or number of other vehicles. Such a space mission would complement those already planned for scaled down tests of the unfolding of the NGST mirror segments (NEXUS) and the sunshade (ISIS). Much would be learned by running the mirror at cryogenic temperature, with a new infrared array to make preliminary observations in the 2 - 4 microns dark sky window, and a CCD to check optical image quality. This mission would be independent of the NGST, but would lay the scientific groundwork for the much more powerful telescope, as well as giving practical experience of mirror operation.