A lightweight telescope that NASA scientists are developing specifically for tiny CubeSat scientific investigations can become the first to carry a mirror made of carbon nanotubes embedded in an epoxy resin. .

Led by Theodor Kostiuk, scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the effort is aimed at giving the scientific community a compact, reproducible and relatively inexpensive telescope that would fit easily inside a CubeSat that measures four inches on a side. .

"No one has been able to make a mirror using a carbon-nanotube resin. The technology is too new to fly in space, and first must go through the various levels of technological advancement," said Peter Chen, a Goddard contractor and president of Lightweight Telescopes, Inc. .

Small satellites, including CubeSats, are playing an increasingly larger role in exploration, technology demonstration, scientific research and educational investigations at NASA. .

These miniature satellites provide a low-cost platform for NASA missions, including planetary space exploration, Earth observations, fundamental Earth and space science and developing science instruments like cutting-edge laser communications, satellite-to-satellite communications and autonomous movement capabilities. .

Kostiuk's team seeks to develop a CubeSat telescope that would be sensitive to the ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelength bands. .

It would be equipped with commercial-off-the-shelf spectrometers and imagers and would be ideal as an "exploratory tool for quick looks that could lead to larger missions," Kostiuk explained in a NASA statement. .

By all accounts, the new-fangled mirror could prove central to creating a low-cost space telescope for a range of CubeSat scientific investigations. .

Unlike most telescope mirrors made of glass or aluminum, this particular optic is made of carbon nanotubes embedded in an epoxy resin. .

To make a mirror, technicians simply pour the mixture of epoxy and carbon nanotubes into a mandrel or mold fashioned to meet a particular optical prescription. .

They then heat the mold to to cure and harden the epoxy.

Once set, the mirror then is coated with a reflective material of aluminum and silicon dioxide.

"This technology can potentially enable very large-area technically active optics in space," Chen added.

Source: Indo-Asia News Service