Fabrication of Lightweight SiC Space Mirror

Silicon carbide ceramic has many attributes including high strength and stiffness, low thermal expansion coefficient, high thermal conductivity, low density and good resistant for radiation of space particles. These attributes make SiC ceramic becoming the third generation space mirror material. This paper describes the fabrication of lightweight SiC mirror blanks. By reducing the shrinkage of green body and controlling the drying conditions, lightweight SiC mirror blank with a diameter of 612mm has been prepared by using gelcasting process. The forming green body is infiltrated with liquid silicon at the temperature of 1600°C, then a CVD SiC layer is coated on the surface of SiC mirror blank. After grinding and polishing, the mirror shows good optical properties.