A 2-meter by 4-meter aperture DART (dual anamorphic reflector telescope) system has been designed and fabricated using thin stretched mesh reflectors. The system concept consists of a pair of single curvature reflectors with curvature in orthogonal directions relative to each other and is being developed for future ultra-lightweight space applications. The current design is an extension of a 1-meter aperture system previously prototyped and successfully tested in the FarIR. The 2m x 4m system is a laboratory prototype with areal density of less than 10kg/m2 for each reflector. The new design demonstrates the advantageous scaling properties of the single curvature reflector concept. The 2m x 4m system was configured and tested in the RF over several frequencies from 5.8 - 8.2 GHz. This paper documents the structural configuration, test preparation, test results, and analysis correlation. Test results show the DART system to be a high directivity antenna (46.5 dB), very low cross-polarization (-33 dB), and good off-axis properties. Test results were in good agreement with analytical predictions of the performance. Generally, the DART system easily achieves the surface accuracy requirements at 8.2 GHz.
A 1.2-meter prototype Dual Anamorphic Reflector Telescope (DART) system has been built and tested. The key design feature of the telescope is a pair of membrane mirrors stretched to single curvature parabolic cylindrical sections. The parabolic figure of the mirrors is controlled by a pair of edge rails at two opposing ends of the membrane. The flexible edge rails are adjusted to parabolic to very high accuracy and can potentially be easily refigured on-orbit. The prototype telescope is lightweight and has demonstrated excellent optical performance for the farIR. The design is readily scalable to larger apertures and for operation at shorter wavelengths. Design and test results are discussed.
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