|
News
June, 2010
On June 24th, 2010 the first full size (1.5m) hexagonal beryllium primary mirror segment was coated with protected gold at Quantum Coating Incorporated. This represents the culmination of a two-year effort and is the final major milestone in our program to develop and qualify the gold coatings to be used on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The preliminary segment, known as the Engineering Development Unit (EDU) will not become part of the telescope’s primary array, which consists of 18 almost identical hexagons, but will be used for ground based testing and will serve as a spare. The EDU will be used for evaluation: before proceeding with the primary segments it is critical to verify that the combination of our high-reflectance gold coating with light-weighted Beryllium mirror technology performs as predicted in all respects. Several important performance elements – such as cryogenic cycling, durability, stress and reflectance - had already been demonstrated in the course of prior qualifying stages and the successful coating of the Tertiary Mirror in April of this year. The full-size EDU brought additional critical requirements into play: control of thickness uniformity over the 1.5m off-axis parabolic surface, and control of the coated aperture to within a fraction of a millimeter along the curved edges of the hexagon. Both aspects were successfully demonstrated through the innovative design and meticulous attention to detail that has become hallmarks of Quantum’s Aerospace Division. The Webb telescope will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. Several innovative technologies have been developed for JWST. These include a folding, segmented primary mirror, adjusted to shape after launch; ultra-lightweight beryllium optics; detectors able to record extremely weak signals, microshutters that enable programmable object selection for the spectrograph; and a cryocooler for cooling the mid-IR detectors to 7K. Looking forward, the next flight optic, the Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) will be coated in July, followed by the first of the Primary Mirror Segments in September 2010. Launch is scheduled for 2014. For more about JWST, visit: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html May, 2009 
In May 2009 the JWST chamber was used to coat two 1.5m zerodur telescope mirrors with our FSS99-106 protected silver. The coatings were uniform to within 2% across the full clear aperture and met all durability and reflectance requirements. This not only demonstrated the operational readiness of the machine, but also served as an extreme load test of the substrate rotation assembly: the combined weight of each glass optic in its fixture approached 2,500lbs, more than 6 times the projected weight of a JWST Primary Segment when fully fixtured. Coatings on JWST telescope optics will start later this year.
September, 2007 
QCI is awarded the contract to coat the primary mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The 6.5 meter primary will be comprised of 18 1.5 meter beryllium segments, each of which will be coated with a Denton proprietary gold coating at QCI “This is a great day for our company”, said QCI President Dan Patriarca. “It is a testament to our longstanding reputation in the aerospace arena and a credit to everyone in the Quantum/Denton organization. We are very excited to be involved in the JWST program” JWST will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. Several innovative technologies have been developed for JWST. These include a folding, segmented primary mirror, adjusted to shape after launch; ultra-lightweight beryllium optics; detectors able to record extremely weak signals, microshutters that enable programmable object selection for the spectrograph; and a cryocooler for cooling the mid-IR detectors to 7K. The long-lead items, such as the beryllium mirror segments and science instruments, are under construction. All mission enabling technologies will be demonstrated by January 2007. The Launch is planned for 2013. For more about JWST, visit:
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html
August, 2007
April, 2007 In the fall, Quantum plans to move all operations to the
Moorestown plant where they will be combined in a new coating
facility within a Class 6 Clean Room. 
Denton Coatings has successfully completed the anti-reflection (AR) coatings on the Schmidt Corrector for the 0.95m high field of view photometer on the Kepler Mission. The corrector required specially designed broad band AR coatings that were resistant to radiation damage and had low reflectance over the wavelength range 400nm to 900nm and. The Kepler Mission, a NASA Discovery mission, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone. The habitable zone encompasses the distances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface. Results from this mission will allow us to place our solar system within the continuum of planetary systems in the Galaxy. Launch is scheduled for February 2009. For more about Kepler, visit: |
||||||
|
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |