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Public Outreach Astrophysics & |
Imaging Technology
Chen, in collaboration with Smith (NASA), Bowers (NASA), and Oliversen (NASA) continued work on the development of extremely lightweight telescopes for lunar and space astronomy missions. Accomplishments include the successful fabrication of a composite replica 0.6 m f/1 mirror with mass 908 g (areal density 1.9 kg/sq.m.), vacuum and cryogenic testing of composite optics, demonstration of active optics control, and demonstration of the complete suppression of fiber print through and bond line problems encountered by previous workers. Some aspects of this work may be applied to the NGST and future telescopes on the moon. Chen presented an invited paper at the Joint Discussion No.22 of the IAU in Japan describing this work. Starr is the Principal Investigator for the X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) experiment which will be launched in March 1998 on the Clark spacecraft. Clark is one of two Small Spacecraft TechnologymInitiative (SSTI) missions (Lewis is the other) which are designed to prove the new NASA paradigm of 'faster, better, cheaper'. The XRS will detect x-ray emissions from solar flares and other astrophysical sources. View the UMBRAS page for more information. |
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