Giant Made-in-Space Telescopes

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Giant made-in-space telescopes with paraboloid primary mirrors made from solidified liquid precursors.

Mirrors are created by spinning a liquid precursor simultaneously in two orthogonal axes (one to generate artificial gravity and another to generate paraboloid surface) and subsequently solidifying the precursor by either letting it cool or polymerizing it.

The precursor support is proposed to be made of a shape memory material which compactly stowes in the launch vehicle.

The precursor can be a molten metal (K and Na are preferred due to their superb reflectance characteristics), two-part and UV-curable epoxies, etc., For dielectric precursors depositing a reflective coating via thermal evaporation is proposed.

High vacuum of space makes this operation feasible.

One telescope configuration features a 3D-printed long boom which assists in spinning of the assembly and which is jettisoned when the mirror is completed.

The resulting mirrors can be extremely large (50-100 meters in diameter) at a cost of 10,000x lower than Webb.

One patent has been awarded, three more are pending.

Paraboloid mirror made with UV-curable epoxy has been demonstrated.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Gary Abramov
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