Large Deployable Telescope Components

ABSTRACT: As future DoD budgets become more cost constrained, delivering high performance payloads in a smaller stowed package to leverage the capabilities of smaller, less costly launch vehicles becomes paramount. The performance of optical payloads is driven by physics. At a first order the image quality is defined by the diameter of the optical aperture, the distance to the area of interest, and the wave length being collected. Incorporating a deployable aperture is a common way to fit a highly capable optical instrument in the relatively small cross section of a launch vehicle fairing. While significant effort has gone into the development of deployable optics, supporting stable structures, advanced lenses, and mechanisms, a 3-Dimensional Deployable Sun Shade that is required for most deployable primary optics has received limited development. The Sun Shade proposed herein is a lower cost and complexity alternative to existing sun shades. MMA Design proposes to significantly advance the state-of-the-art in low risk, low mass deployable sun shades by completing development of our Minotaur IV class deployable sun shade. The Air Force will have the final system component to field a large aperture optical system on a variety of small launch vehicles allowing significant flexibility and cost savings. BENEFIT: Potential benefits and impacts to the Air Force missions include: 1. Cost savings - using a deployable optical aperture system allows the use of less costly launch vehicles that can result in significant savings with similar payload performance. The Sun Shade is less complex and fits spacecraft and fairing geometry better than existing systems. 2. Mission ISR data and quality can improve with increases in deployable aperture size. 3. Rapid development and maturation of innovative spacecraft sun shade technologies leading to low cost solutions that are adaptable and scalable to other AFRL applications. 4. A scalable system design - the MMA product roadmap envisions and plans multiple dash versions of the Sun Shade that build upon the core deployable architecture to support the fielding of apertures that are larger in diameter than the launch vehicle in multiple launch vehicle classes (Minotaur I and IV, ESPA, ALASA, etc.). 5. The MMA team offers Air Force high innovative content for revolutionizing optical ISR spacecraft technologies with high risk/reward payoffs. Air Force can leverage our small company performance advantages in the areas of technical, schedule and cost.