With the rapid progress of technology and manufacture, the number of telescopes in space is mounting dramatically. Considering launch cost, more and more engineers nowadays pursue lightweight and compact design of telescope in space. Traditional design scheme usually has a support plate for primary reflective mirror. It will take some space for other parts. The paper, taking a primary reflective mirror with 600mm in diameter as an example, put forward a novel design of circle support component instead of traditional support plate. It utilized a special structural layout to save more space. The paper specified this design scheme and made comparison between these two design schemes. The paper also gave the assembling method of the primary reflective mirror and circle support component, which would verify its feasibility in engineering practice in a virtual way. The novel structure design in this paper will give some guidance to engineers and designers, who are devoting themselves to designing space telescopes.
The number of space optical instruments is growing with a quick pace. Reflective mirror is always a significant part in a space optical system, especially in the laser communication system. Support is used to connect reflective mirror to other structure. The paper focused on designing a cylinder support. Considering thermal condition in space, the paper gave a special design of support with some soft links. The paper made a comparison between traditional design scheme of cylinder support and new design scheme of special cylinder support. From the comparison, it could be concluded that new design scheme had better performance in the thermal condition. Later, modal analysis and some vibration analyses were done to verify the reliability and feasibility of the new design. The result showed the design scheme was good.
For large aperture and high-resolution space optical cameras, the focusing requirements caused by different resolution requirements, or the requirements for the segmented primary mirror for deployable telescopes or on-orbit assembly space telescopes, the micro- or nano-metric multi degree of freedom adjusting of the primary mirror or the segment mirror is one of the inevitable development trends of the active optical system. According to the different degrees of freedom involved in the primary mirror adjustment, the micro- or nano-metric multi degree of freedom adjusting displacement scaling mechanisms of the monolithic and segmented primary mirror are studied. The development history and structural characteristics of multi degree of freedom adjusting displacement scaling mechanisms including rigid lever type, gear deceleration type, hydraulic mechanism type and compliant hinge type, as well as their research status and application fields, are introduced. The performance characteristics and applications of various displacement scaling mechanisms are analyzed and compared. Finally, according to the application requirements of space telescopes in the future, the development trend of multi degree of freedom (DOF) adjusting displacement scaling mechanism for segmented primary mirror is proposed.
Mechanical structure, of which a trade-off between weight and strength has always been considered primely, is important for a space camera as a hub for other assemblies such as optics parts, electronic parts, etc. Traditionally the space camera is composed of a nearly line-up of arrangements containing different units, which is easy to assemble and manufacture, however, not a good type for mechanical properties due to the cantilever structure. We present a new type of unitized design for the structure of the space camera, which unite the tube and the electric cabinet as one unit, with the PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) surrounded. The main frame is optimized by using topology optimization, improving the characteristic of the structure. The maneuverability has also been considered. Compared with some traditional type, the new type proved to be lighter and more compact, which is beneficial to the mechanical properties and the cost control of satellite launching.
There are different kinds of mirror in the space instrument. Sometimes, engineers use filling glue to fill the small gap of the lens and its frame. Thus the structure may be more stable. However, this kind of method could also bring some new problems. Because of different thermal expansion coefficient of the lens and frame, the thermal deformation may be different during the temperature change, which will affect the surface accuracy of the lens and the vibration response. The thickness of glue block and the distributed form of the glue are the key factors. The paper focused on these factors and did some simulations to find out how these factors affect the surface accuracy and fundamental frequency. Then, the paper gave some proposals on this issue.
The research on space laser communication has become a hotspot in recent years. The research trend of it is high speed transferring, networking and integration. Integration design means that the structure should be compact and reliable. CPA (Coarse Pointing Assembly) is an important component in space laser communication system. The paper makes design of CPA reflective mirror. On one hand, it is expected that the reflective mirror is as light as possible with small size. On the other hand, it is expected that the structure is reliable with high stiffness. These two aspects are contradict. And several factors make influence on these two aspects, such as the thickness of mirror, the size of bottom holes, the thickness of ribs and so on. The paper makes sensitivity analysis and chooses proper design variables for further optimization. And then, the paper makes a multi-objective optimal design based on factors mentioned above. In the process of optimization, a special objective function is deduced. At last the optimal design is obtained. The result shows that optimal design scheme has good characteristics.
To ensure the dimensional stability of the opto-mechanical structure of the space optical remote sensor is an important prerequisite for the acquisition of high quality images. The change of the relative position between the primary and secondary mirrors has a great influence on the imaging quality of the long focal length optical remote sensor. Several common forms of supporting structure between the primary and secondary mirrors and the secondary mirror support of lightweight, high stiffness have been analyzed. This paper has designed a baffle tube between primary and secondary mirrors of high modulus carbon fiber M55J/cyanate ester material, carbon fiber composite main body with titanium alloy inserts integral the secondary mirror supporting structure. Through static and dynamic analysis, it is proved that the designed optical remote sensor has good structural stability and dynamic characteristics, and meets the requirements of engineering application.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.