Shock and vibration tests of space light-weighted corner cubes manufactured with adhesion process

Abstract

The interferometer of the third generation meteorological satellite is composed by two corner cubes. The specifications, in terms of optical performances-wave front error (WFE)-and mechanical and thermal environments are very stringent compared to the actual knowledge. To answer to the mass, optical and mechanical specifications, a lightweighted hollow corner cube have been designed. An integration process based on enhanced molecular adhesion have been developed and tested in collaboration with CNES and LMA. This process required a fine polishing of the three mirrors of the corner cube before adhesion in order to obtain a very low flatness, roughness and angle precision. The mechanical resistance of the enhanced molecular adhesion process have been validated on three mockups submitted to shock and vibrations. The optical performances have been demonstrate on flight model corner cubes.

Improvement of molecular adhesion for spatial applications at Thales SESO over the past 20 years

“…After lots of development and characterization [19], Thales SESO succeed to increase the mechanical resistance of the molecular adhesion by a factor five. The cube corner is composed by three fused silica mirrors adhered one to the other.…”