Abstract—To cope up with the challenges of deep space exploration and communication it is mandatory to have telescopic reflectors of large diameters both on ground and in space. Current spacecrafts has constraints of its own in terms of available space to accommodate reflector of diameters more than 4m. This paper focuses on overcoming the challenges of available footprint area in the spacecraft by modifying the monolithic reflector by dividing it in segments. A new solution is proposed to “divide” and “rule” large sized telescopic reflectors in small segments and folding them to reduce overall size of the assembly; which will reduce the overall footprint area of the mirror.

Index Terms—segmented mirror, mechanism, hinges, footprint area

Cite: Parth P. Prajapati and A. R. Srinivas, "Lotus Mechanism: A Novel Concept for Primary Mirror Deployment," Journal of Industrial and Intelligent Information, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 204-208, May 2016. doi: 10.18178/jiii.4.3.204-208