Integrated modeling for design of lightweight, active mirrors

Lightweight, active, silicon carbide mirrors have the potential to enable larger primary aperture, space-based optical systems, hence improving the resolution and sensitivity of such systems. However, due to the lack of design heritage, the best mirror designs are not yet known. Therefore, an integrated model of the lightweight mirrors is created in order to explore the design space. The model determines the achievable radius of curvature change within wavefront error limits, the peak launch stress, and the mass of a mirror segment. However, designing a mirror to meet any of these individual objectives results in a system that performs poorly in terms of the other objectives. Therefore, a full trade space analysis is run to determine the portions of the design space that best balance the trade-offs between metrics. These results are used to determine designs that perform well with respect to specific missions and can be used for future mirror designs. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3592520]