Technicians at NASA Ames Research Center are reflected in the coated SOFIA telescope main mirror suspended above them. The main mirror for NASA's new airborne eye on the universe is now ready for installation after being transformed from a carefully shaped and polished piece of glass into a highly reflective optical component.
After years of development and preparation, it took just 20 seconds to apply the shiny aluminum coating to the glass mirror for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA. The telescope is scheduled to begin initial observations in mid-2009.
Project engineers completed the first mirror coating of the German-built telescope, a major project milestone, in a 10-ton, 16-foot tall stainless steel vacuum chamber at Ames. SOFIA optical engineers and scientists will annually re-coat the mirror, as is done for other large research telescope mirrors, and also routinely clean the mirror.
SOFIA is unique, in part, because the mirror cell is largely composed of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, a material commonly found in tennis racquets and modern sailboat hulls. These types of composite materials provide the light weight and stiffness required for precision airborne optical components.
Image Credit: USRA/Patrick Waddell