In-Space Deposition of Reflective Mirror Coatings: Demonstration Mission Design and Goals.

We provide an update on our ongoing technology advancement and new mission development for on-orbit deposition of optical coatings. This technology leverages NASA’s Wake Shield Facility heritage (STS 60, 69 and 80, achieving a final TRL of 8) to create coatings technology that can be directly applied to substrates to achieve the required performance for the next generation of space telescopes. The USAF has recently funded this technology to fabricate optical coatings on-orbit for its future systems. We will discuss this funded effort including progress in ongoing ground testing and the on-orbit demonstration mission scheduled for 2023-2024.