MIRRORS: Monolithic Isogrid Reflectors for Radio-to-Optical Remote Sensing

The innovation addressed in this proposal is a structural architecture for large membrane reflectors. This system combines the deployability and high specific stiffness of flexible composite shell elements with the mass-efficiency of fractal isogrids.This combination of technologies simultaneously solves the three primary issues facing gossamer reflectors: surface precision, stiffness, and deployability. Most lightweight mirror systems use a face sheet to provide bending stiffness at the local scale,and a backing structure to provide stiffness at the global scale. MIRRORS uses the concept of the fractal isogrid to provide bending stiffness at every scale. In addition to the improved dynamic stability, the fractal network also supports the membraneat a high enough spatial frequency that the surface precision and shape control is vastly improved over that of tension based reflectors. Furthermore, the proposed concept, known as Monolithic Isogrid Reflectors for Radio-to-Optical Remote Sensing(MIRRORS), can be applied to a variety of reflector and deployment architectures, and is therefore applicable to a broad range of missions. (P-030095) The commercial market for large, stiff, lightweight and low cost mirrors is extremely broad. The United States has been flying and launching surveillance assets since the `50s and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. NASA too, has needfor large, lightweight optics for their Next Generation Space Telescope, Terrestrial Planet Finder and Terrestrial Planet Imager programs. In the non-Government sector, the market for lightweight, high-performance mirrors is equally strong. Mirrors areused for a wide range of photolithography and other manufacturing applications, most notably for microchip and printed circuit board production. MIRRORS combination of weight and precision will make it ideal for fast-slewing reflectors.