Lightweight Design and Evaluation of Square Reflector

Abstract

In order to reduce the weight of optical elements in space remote sensors while increasing their stiffness, this paper takes an off-axis system secondary mirror as an example to design a square mirror with a size of 500 mm × 500 mm. The mirror adopts ultra-low expansion glass as the raw material. The paper proposed a lightweight form of gradual reinforcement and conducted the mirror assembly simulation analysis. The analysis results show that the weight of the lightweight mirror is 13.6 kg, and the surface density can reach 54.4 kg/m2. Under the circumstances of 1 g gravity and the temperature change of 15 °C~25 °C, the surface shape accuracy of the mirror assembly can reach 1/90λ (λ = 632.8 nm). Through the final testing, the first-order intrinsic frequency of the reflex mirror components is 167.8 Hz. The gap between the test results and the theoretical simulation results is less than 3%, which proves that the mirror assembly in the lightweight form of gradual reinforcement fully meets the index requirements and can provide a theoretical reference for the assembly of a mirror of similar size and type.

Keywords

• square reflector
• gradual reinforcing ribs
• lightweight design
• simulation analysis
• evaluation