At approximately $3 million each, the contracts were awarded by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to the Raytheon Company of Danbury, Conn.; Eastman Kodak of Rochester, N.Y.; and Ball Aerospace of Boulder, Colo. Raytheon received two contracts.

The three contractors will continue the work they started in the design phase of the program. Their work will now mature as they develop and test four large lightweight mirror segments over the next two years.

Known as the Advanced Mirror System Demonstrator (AMSD), this collaborative effort to develop advanced mirrors for next-generation optical systems in space is sponsored by NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) project, the National Reconnaissance Office and several Air Force organizations.

Participating Air Force units include the Research Laboratory's Directed Energy and Space Vehicles Directorates at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. and the Space Based Laser System Program Office at Los Angeles (Calif.) Air Force Base.

"This approach of using ultra-lightweight mirror assemblies, figured and controlled in space by electro-mechanical actuators and powerful on-board computers, really is a revolutionary new paradigm for space optics," said Bernie Seery, NGST project manager.

"The AMSD program is addressing the improvements in mirror materials, design and the aggressive cycle times necessary to fabricate 50 square meters (540 square feet) of primary mirror in under three years for the NGST Observatory," added Seery.

All of the collaborating agencies are providing technical oversight on the contracts. Scientists and engineers from the Air Force Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate are providing optical expertise, while its Space Vehicles Directorate is contributing large space structures know-how.

In the current phase of the program, four competing designs, using various materials, will be developed. After this phase, any of the government collaborators can enter into a contract with one of these contractors to build a next-generation space mirror tailored to that agency's specific requirements.

The Next Generation Space Telescope Project, located at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the NGST observatory development for the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters.

This revolutionary observatory, recently accorded NASA's top priority mission for space astronomical research by the National Academy-sponsored Decadal Survey, is scheduled for flight in the 2008-09 timeframe.

Technology is needed to enable a lightweight, active primary mirror which is 26.4 feet (8 meters) in diameter, and capable of deployment on orbit.

In order to launch these new, large mirrors into space economically, they need to be much lighter - from the current Hubble weight of about 36 pounds per square foot (180 kilograms per square meter) to less than 3 pounds per square foot (15 kilograms per square meter). Also, to fit inside current launch vehicles, a complete mirror needs to be made of smaller segments that can be assembled automatically in space.

The Air Force needs large mirrors in space to use with low-power lasers for remote surveillance or with high-power space-based lasers for defense against long-range missiles.

For these uses, mirrors are needed that range in size from 12 to 48 feet (4 to 16 meters) in diameter. For comparison, the mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope is 7 feet, 9 inches (2.4 meters) across.

Over the next two years, the three contractors will fabricate, assemble and test their mirror segments. They must show that their mirrors are capable of changing shape once in orbit and be able to work in temperatures that vary from 80 degrees Fahrenheit (about 300 degrees Kelvin) to minus 387 degrees Fahrenheit (about 40 degrees Kelvin) depending upon the application.

In the first phase of the AMSD effort which began in 1999, eight awards, at approximately $300,000 each, were awarded by NASA/Goddard to develop mirror designs.

SPACE SCOPES

Artist's impression of FIRST & NGST located in the L2 point 1,500,000 km from Earth - ESA Image

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