Design, Construction and Validation of a secondary mirror deployment mechanism for a thermal infrared space telescope

Abstract

The miniaturization of satellites throughout the decades is mostly contributed by the advancement in electronics and technology. Volume and mass of a satellite are factors of the launch costs. The Deployable Space Telescope (DST) program
aims to reduce the stowed volume of the telescope and subsequently reduce the costs.
Telescopes have an inherit design problem with reducing their size. The focal length is a property of how far a telescope can see. This length correlates with the physical length that the optical elements are separated. This is necessary for a telescope to function. The distance between the primary mirror and the
secondary mirror largely dictates the focal length. The deployment of the DST is the change in length between these optical elements after launch to when it is in orbit. This thesis is describing the development of the secondary mirror deployment mechanism for a thermal infrared space telescope.