Fabrication of Lightweight Mirrors for Ground-Based Telescopes via Commercial 3D Printing

The United States Air Force and Space Force require novel manufacturing techniques resulting in reduced cost and lighter weight ground-based telescopes supporting space domain awareness efforts via lower density custom size/shape mirrors produced by additive manufacturing (AM). Suitable mirror geometries are parabolic with a figuring of ?/4, ?/10, or better. Legacy materials include fused silica, quartz, and borosilicate glass, which are unable to maintain their shape when viewing at or below the horizon and when used in the desired temperature range (32 °F–100 °F).  In the Phase II Effort, photocurable silicon-based polymers and preceramic polymers will be printed into the desired shape (?/10) via stereolithography (SLA) and direct ink write (DIW) and evaluated geometrically via interferometry (Foucault testing), optical profilometry, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for surface roughness and assembled into a Newtonian telescope.  The materials that will be 3D-printed are commercially available, domestically sourced, low cost and lightweight, and ready to be integrated into ground-based telescope systems to mitigate the structural and thermal issues associated with conventional quartz or glass mirrors.