Advanced Ultra-Lightweight Hybrid/Composite Mirrors (ULHCMs)

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II program seeks to develop a pioneering mirror replication technology for producing hybridized ultra-light mirrors for space applications. Current state-of-the art space mirrors do not satisfy the ULHCMs (Ultra-Lightweight Hybrid/Composite Mirrors) concepts that require 1 to 5 kg/m2 of areal density. An innovative new mirror fabrication approach is needed to address these current technical obstacles. UES successfully demonstrated the technical feasibility of hybrid mirror replication through the proposed novel fabrication processes during the Phase I period. Hybrid mirrors, with sizes up to 4-inches in diameter and an areal density below 5 kg/m2, were integrated by combining metal mirror facesheets and ultra-light inorganic sub-structures, along with an inorganic adhesive. In the Phase II program, we will continue to refine and tune the processing variables for producing the needed properties, and will develop a robust hybridization process. This process will be utilized during the Phase III program to fabricate a large-sized mirror (> 20 inches) that is ultra-light (an areal density < 3 kg/m2), mechanically and chemically stable, and that shows an outstanding optical quality as well as a high optical stability. BENEFIT: The successful completion of the Phase II program will demonstrate a novel hybridized mirror replication technology that can produce cost-effective, ultra-light, and space quality mirrors. Examples of potential military applications are large segmented mirrors for reconnaissance/surveillance type telescopes as well as laser beam deflectors for directed energy weapons and telecommunications. Commercial applications arise from the potential to make large segmented mirrors for land and space-based telescope systems.