Carbon-Carbon Mirrors for Exoatmospheric and Space Applications

摘要

The cost and leadtime associated with beryllium has forced the MDA and other defense agencies to look for alternative materials with similar structural and thermal properties. The use of carbon-carbon material, specifically in optical components has been demonstrated analytically in prior SBIR work at San Diego Composites. Carbon-carbon material was chosen for its low in-plane and through-thickness CTE (athermal design), high specific stiffness, near-zero coefficient of moisture expansion, availability of material (specifically c-c honeycomb for lightweight substrates), and compatibility with silicon monoxide (SiO) and silicon dioxide (SiO_2) coatings. Subsequent development work has produced shaped carbon-carbon sandwich substrates which have been ground, polished, coated and figured using traditional optical processing. Further development has also been done on machined monolithic carbon-carbon mirror substrates which have also been processed using standard optical finishing techniques.