Silica-Silica Mirror Substrate Fabrication Technology

Mentis Sciences, Inc. Proposes to develop a thin walled Silica-Silica composite that can be used as part of a honeycomb core sandwich panel that will form a mirror substrate that has a low coefficient of thermal expansion that is matched in all directions. The sandwich panel will be manufactured as a quartz polysiloxane composite. Following the cure, organics will be burned out and the system will be backfilled using Tetraethyl orthosilicate as a silica precursor. Following conversion, the resulting silica-silica composite will be suitable for use as a mirror substrate. The resulting product will be an ideal solution for reducing the areal cost of ultraviolet and optical mirror systems while meeting the stringent performance requirements of these systems. The novel manufacturing process used by Mentis will allow for thinner walls than have been used on mirrors in the past, resulting in a lightweight materials solution. During Phase I, Mentis will develop the Silica-Silica manufacturing process, and obtain preliminary modulus, cte and thermal conductivity data. In addition, a top-level feasibility study will be conducted and a small-scale piece of silica-silica honeycomb sandwich panel will be manufactured.

Silica-Silica composites, can be fabricated into low cte, lightweight, and affordable sandwich panels using unique manufacturing techniques developed at Mentis. The resulting structures would be suitable for use as mirror substrates. These mirror substrates have potential applications as components on NASA UV/Optical Telescopes. The technology is suitable for monolithic mirrors up to 8 meters and segmented mirrors that are even larger. Missions that meet these requirements would be Large UV/Optical and Habitable Exoplanet missions. The predicted light weight of the system also make the technology suitable for use as a mirror for Ultra-Stable Balloon Telescopes and Exoplanet balloon telescopes.

Within the Department of Defense there are several applications for affordable mirror structures that are lightweight and have a low cte. Two potential applications would be integration into the optics train on a missile interceptor or use as part of the Gun-launched Tactical Satellite System (GLTSS). Performance optics with a low weight are critical to both applications and the unique ability to affordably manufacture sandwich panels from the silica-silica material make this material a true contender for insertion on these systems.

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