Space structures for communication, exploration

Ball Aerospace and Technologies recently completed testing in Boulder CO of a foldable, membrane-based telescope called MOIRE, for the Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation platform. An orbital version would consist of a 20-meter-diameter optic to provide real-time video capabilities fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aerospace America 2014-12, Vol.52 (11), p.14
Main Authors: Davis, Gregory L, Tandy, William, Campbell, Thomas, Murphy, Dave, Spence, Brian, Johnson, Les, Collins, Timothy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerospace industry
Orbits
Product testing
Real time
Telescopes
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Ball Aerospace and Technologies recently completed testing in Boulder CO of a foldable, membrane-based telescope called MOIRE, for the Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation platform. An orbital version would consist of a 20-meter-diameter optic to provide real-time video capabilities from geosynchronous orbit. The current development phase tested a complete optic system with a 5-meter-diameter membrane optic. Three MOIRE-related papers were presented at AIAA's SciTech 2014 conference, covering material and structural analyses, as well as preliminary results. In the radio frequency domain, Harris Corp. has developed, built and tested unfurlable and fixed-mesh reflector designs with demonstrated performance up to Ka-band and higher frequencies.
ISSN:0740-722X