Space optical payloads, new application area for high temperature composites11Paper IAF-96-I.3.02 presented at the 47th International Astronautical Congress, Beijing, China, 7–11 October 1996.

High temperature composites have been extensively developed in order to produce thermal protection systems of reusable re-entry vehicles and launchers. This development effort covers all aspects including sizing, design, manufacturing processes characterization, non destructive inspection, and all industrial facilities which have also been installed. Strong interest recently appeared for these materials to meet requirements for different space applications. In particularly, for more stringent optical payloads, new materials with high performance requirements have appeared. In the field of high dimensionally stable structures for telescopes, materials have to meet severe requirements, such as low coefficients of thermal expansion, good specific modulus, long-term stability (moisture and chemical insensitivity), etc. Carbon/carbon (C/C) composites can meet these specifications. To demonstrate this capability a structure has been designed, manufactured and will be submitted for complete testing (work supported by ESA/ESTEC). The main available results (part feasibility, characterizations, analysis and stability performance budgets) are presented. For future telescope mirrors, silicon carbide is already known as a good candidate. However, an innovative concept based on silicon carbide sandwich honeycomb technology, which allows optimized design, has been developed. The first characterization results and manufacturing capabilities are presented.