Membrane Space Telescope: Case study of a deployable large aperture

Membrane mirror technology offers the prospect for future extremely large space telescopes. Utilizing a thin parabolic membrane as primary mirror base, very low aerial weights can be achieved. The flexible nature of those membranes allows to roll the mirror and compactly store them upon launch. In this presentation, the evaluation of a mounting structure for the membrane mirror will be presented. As the mirror is a thin membrane only, a stress free mounting need to be realized taking gravity release into account. The mounting structure must take the membrane unfolding and radiatively controlled surface optimization into account, requiring special attend on the radiation management. Regarding a telescope structure to finalize a complete optical system must be discussed in that respect.