Surface Optics Brings New Technology to NASA Missions

Surface Optics Corporation has developed a capability for applying a high quality durable silver coating to large area mirrors that meets the requirements of space telescopes. The innovative work proceeded under a NASA SBIR contract managed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The challenge was to utilize a new silver mirror coating developed at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in a large area mirror coating facility, applying very precise layers to meet the requirements of an optical quality mirror for telescope applications.

This new innovative process found its first space application in a mirror for the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument on India’s Chandrayaan-1 satellite which launched on October 22, 2008. This instrument is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that is mapping the entire surface of the Moon at high spatial and spectral resolution, identifying the minerals on the lunar surface. Each mineral has its own unique spectrum, identified from spectrographic readings taken in laboratories. JPL's Moon Mineralogy Mapper M3 Instrument is listed as one of NASA’s top science, exploration and discovery stories of 2008.

This "image-cube" was acquired across the Moon's Oriental Basin. The color dimension illustrates the actual spectral information collected by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper.

The second NASA application of this technology was the mirror for the powerful photometer on the Kepler spacecraft schedule for launch in March of 2009. The $500 million mission will survey part of the Milky Way galaxy with its photometer in an effort to uncover evidence of Earth-like planets orbiting stars in habitable zones. The brightness of 100,000 stars will be continuously measured, searching for planets that cross in front of them. The resulting change in brightness will be used to measure the planet’s size passing in front of the star and its orbital period.

The 1.4 diameter mirror silver coated by Surface Optics Corporation is near the bottom of the photometer.

Further refinements in mirror technology are important to future NASA astronomical missions. Surface Optics Corporation has responded to this need and won a second NASA SBIR Phase I contract award to refine the silver coating process for telescope mirrors. The small business community, supported by the NASA SBIR and STTR Programs, remain in a good position to meet many of NASA’s new technology needs and benefit additionally through commercial application of their accomplishments.