Thermal radiative properties of the microwave anisotropy probe telescope

摘要

The twin composite structure telescopes aboard the Microwave Anisotropy Probe were selectively roughened to reduce focused solar radiance. They were then overcoated with evaporated Al + reactively evaporated silicon oxide films whose respective thicknesses were sufficient to achieve the high reflectance (low emittance) of bulk aluminum at the microwave operating frequencies; high emittance in the thermal emittance (300K) region (ε＞0.50); and moderately low solar absorptance (α＜0.4) for a resultant α/ε ＜ 0.9. This report will discuss the experimental techniques used to prepare the telescope reflector surfaces and to evaluate their resultant properties.