Manufacturing of thin-shell offset demonstrator reflector

Abstract

This paper presents manufacturing and testing of a 1/3-scaled demonstrator of a full-scale thin-shell reflector. The demonstrator reflector is an offset reflector with a diameter of 2 m, and a focal length of 1.6 m, and an offset distance of 0.1 m. The reflector structure is a simple monolithic structure, and consists of a reflector surface and a skirt. The skirt is an integral part of the reflector and used to stiffen the reflector. The demonstrator is made of plain-woven carbon/epoxy by vacuum assisted resin infusion process. It is aimed that the manufactured reflector has a low manufacturing cost, a high precision surface, and demonstrates capability of folding and deploying. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications.