Compact, reflective, easy-to-manufacture mirrors are a critical component for advancing astronomical technology in space. Mirrors are a key component in most telescopes, though they are notoriously hard to manufacture with the necessary precision, especially at large scales. A new paper posted to the arXiv preprint server from researchers in the U.K. uses additive manufacturing to make a thin, flexible, and lightweight mirror out of aluminum and analyzes its properties to see if it will be useful in applications such as CubeSats.
A 3D-printed aluminum mirror could enhance CubeSat observations
