Advanced space telescopes which will eventually replace the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will have 8-20 m diameter apertures. Primary mirrors (PM's) of these dimensions will fold to fit intot he space launcher. By necessity,t hese mirrors will be extremely lightweight and flexible. The historical approaches to mirror designs, where the mirror is made as rigid as possible to maintain figure and to serve as the anchor for the entire telescope, can no longer be applied. New design concepts and verifications will depend entirely on analytical methods to predict optical performance. Integrated modeling of the structural, thermal, and optical performance of such mirrors is becoming the tool for advanced space mirror designs. This paper discusses some of the tasks and study results which are currently the basis for the design and integrated modeling studies of the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST).
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