Towards understanding and eliminating defects in additively manufactured CubeSat mirrors

Robert Snell; Carolyn Atkins; Hermine Schnetler; Younes Chahid; Mat Beardsley; Michael Harris; Chenxi Zhang; Richard Pears; Ben Thomas; Henry Saunders; Alexander Sloane; George Maddison; Iain Todd

doi:10.1117/12.2629935

29 August 2022 Towards understanding and eliminating defects in additively manufactured CubeSat mirrors

Robert Snell, Carolyn Atkins, Hermine Schnetler, Younes Chahid, Mat Beardsley, Michael Harris, Chenxi Zhang, Richard Pears, Ben Thomas, Henry Saunders, Alexander Sloane, George Maddison, Iain Todd

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12188, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation V; 121880V (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629935
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Fabricating mirrors using additive manufacturing (AM; 3D printing) is a promising yet under-researched production route. There are several issues that need to be better understood before AM can be fully adopted to fabricate mirror substrates. A significant obstacle to AM adoption is the presence of porosity and the influence that has on the resultant optical proprieties. Several batches of high-silicon aluminium (AlSi10Mg) samples were created to investigate the relationships laser parameters, laser paths and build orientations have with the porosity. The results showed that eliminating defects relies on a complex interaction of the process parameters and material properties, with the residual heating from the laser proving to be a significant factor. In addition, the use of a hot isostatic press is investigated and some full prototypes of the Cassegrain CubeSat were produced.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Robert Snell, Carolyn Atkins, Hermine Schnetler, Younes Chahid, Mat Beardsley, Michael Harris, Chenxi Zhang, Richard Pears, Ben Thomas, Henry Saunders, Alexander Sloane, George Maddison, and Iain Todd "Towards understanding and eliminating defects in additively manufactured CubeSat mirrors", Proc. SPIE 12188, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation V, 121880V (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629935

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