The Design and Technological Institute of Scientific Instrument Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences has created unique measuring equipment for preparing the mirror of the Spektr-M telescope for space conditions. This was announced by the director of the scientific institution, Petr Zavyalov.
According to the scientist, studying the impact of temperature changes on spacecraft is a key task in creating such equipment. To simulate space conditions on Earth, special stands and installations are created for testing both entire spacecraft and their individual elements.
Usually, such installations are chambers in which vacuum and the necessary temperatures are created. But there is practically no standard measuring equipment for these purposes.
If we want to create precise equipment, such as a space telescope or a communication satellite, it is important that all structures – antennas, mirrors – are stable in their dimensions, and their behavior is predictable. We are now creating such equipment. These are optical interferometers, which on the one hand provide high measurement accuracy, and on the other hand, can measure sufficiently large objects several meters in size.
The new system will allow testing of more than 100 mirror elements made of special thermostable carbon fiber. They will be tested in a vacuum at temperatures down to minus 270 °C.
At these temperatures, the sensitivity of the telescope in the submillimeter range will be achieved.
The development of the system is planned to take six months. The testing of the new equipment will take the same amount of time.
The «Спектр-М» telescope is designed to study various objects of the Universe in the millimeter and infrared ranges.
Earlier www1.ru reported that Russia is a leading manufacturer of plasma engines for spacecraft.
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