On September 9, 2021, as the chief designer of the Tianwen-1 Mars rover system, Sun Zezhou looked forward to the application prospects of beryllium materials in the field of space mirrors. Because of its good nuclear performance, thermal performance, optical performance, light weight and high strength, beryllium materials play an irreplaceable role in aerospace and other fields. In addition to inertial navigation system gyroscopes, they also appear in the field of space mirrors.
If remote sensing satellites are compared to "clairvoyance", then the space mirror is equivalent to "eyeballs." The thermal environment in space is harsh, requiring materials to have good dimensional stability; at the same time, the vibration environment during the launch process also has higher requirements for the resistance to deformation of the materials. Beryllium materials have good performance in these two aspects.
On the other hand, beryllium has the advantage of being lightweight. If you adjust the mirror in space, the lighter the material, the better. "Compared with silicon carbide and other materials, beryllium materials have a lower density and can be lightweighted, generally reducing weight by more than 65%. Therefore, it is an important application material for satellite optical remote sensor scanning mirrors." Sun Zezhou said.
It is understood that currently only the United States, China and Russia have mastered the complete industrial chain of beryllium. The James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to be launched at the end of this year, uses beryllium as the primary mirror material.
According to Sun Zezhou, in recent years, China has also made great progress in the development and application of beryllium mirrors. It has made considerable progress in key indicators such as the size of the reflector and the temperature resistance environment.