The state corporation Roscosmos announces that the next stage of testing within the framework of the Millimetron project has begun at the Information Satellite Systems company named after Academician M.F. Reshetnev (ISS).
Recall that Millimetron provides for the creation of the Spektr-M space telescope. This device with a main mirror diameter of 10 meters will study various objects of the Universe in the millimeter, submillimeter and far infrared spectral ranges.
The observatory is planned to be brought to the Lagrange point L2 of the Sun-Earth system at a distance of 1,5 million kilometers from our planet. True, the launch will take place only after 2030.
As part of the project, ISS is developing the space telescope itself and a system of cooling screens with a diameter of 12 to 20 meters. The latter are necessary so that the signals from the studied objects of the Universe are not "muffled" by thermal radiation from the operating instruments of the observatory.
For the telescope to work, it is necessary to provide the same temperature background that is present in space - about minus 269 degrees Celsius. Therefore, Russian specialists have to solve the problems of ensuring the performance of materials at ultra-low temperatures.
During the next stage of testing, one of the carbon-fiber segments of the main mirror of the observatory was placed in a thermal vacuum chamber to test its geometric stability when exposed to temperatures down to minus 180 degrees Celsius. It is reported that the product showed the required geometric accuracy.
In the future, mirror elements will be tested at lower temperatures on partner equipment.
Source: 3dnews.ru