Government: Renewable energy interests have indicated a desire to field an ever growing number of large solar concentrators. The maturing of the materials, process, and design competencies would position VCG to capture additional work in this area. Key customers in this area are at the Department of Energy and possibly DoD. Commercial: Large, accurate, thermally stable reflectors may be needed for broadband wireless spacecraft. The increasing need to provide internet capabilities to remote locations for commercial applications has lead several service providers and spacecraft manufacturers to consider constellations of spacecraft to meet this need. Lightweight, large-aperture, thermally stable reflectors with micron level tolerances will be needed to meet the ever growing needs for traffic capacity per spacecraft. This program could provide enabling technology for these commercial spacecraft systems. VCG has good contacts within each of the Primes where these opportunities will likely emerge. The capabilities proposed in this SBIR would be relevant to a variety of Space and Earth science missions currently in various stages of formulation. The nearest term target for inserting the reflector technology include the CCAT and SMLS missions. Mission study groups at JPL, Cornell, GSFC, and LaRC (LIDAR) are the most likely customers in this area.
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