Design of bipod flexures for space mirror

Chang-bo Chu; Ying-cai Li; Wen-yi Chai; Xue-wu Fan

doi:10.1117/12.902227

15 August 2011 Design of bipod flexures for space mirror

Chang-bo Chu, Ying-cai Li, Wen-yi Chai, Xue-wu Fan

Proceedings Volume 8196, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2011: Space Exploration Technologies and Applications; 819620 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.902227
Event: International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2011, 2011, Beijing, China

Abstract

Bipod flexures are used in many high-precision space mirror mount applications. The flexures are used to provide moment isolation for the mirror to minimize surface figure distortion resulting from mount assembly error or distortion of the mount temperature-change-induced. In this paper, we developed a bipod flexure for the Zerodur primary mirror with diameter 520 mm and thickness 70 mm. The characteristic of the bipod flexure is the two-strip flexure on the top and bottom of each leg. By those, the bending stress in mirror resulting from the mount assembly is remarkably reduced. Thanking to a semi-open structure with small mouth and big stomach in the back and a six parts symmetrical honeycomb structure for the primary mirror, using the FEA (Finite Element Analysis) method we analyze that how the axial and circumferential locations of the three bipod flexures impact mirror surface figure and gain the better result after optimization. In the design of the detail bipod flexures, thickness of the blade is analyzed and compared; also we achieve an optimization design. The two results demonstrate that the bipod flexures could keep the precision of the mirror surface figure under the load of external force and thermal constraints and meanwhile they could keep stability of structure.

Citation Download Citation

Chang-bo Chu, Ying-cai Li, Wen-yi Chai, and Xue-wu Fan "Design of bipod flexures for space mirror", Proc. SPIE 8196, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2011: Space Exploration Technologies and Applications, 819620 (15 August 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.902227

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