A unique welding machine has been created in Russia, which will allow to continue the development of the domestic telescope "Millimetron"
Russia has successfully developed a welding unit that has no analogues in the world, which will allow welding ultra-thin polyimide films required for the creation of the Millimetron space telescope. The device is capable of welding parts with a thickness of 20 microns, which, for a minute, is significantly thinner than a human hair.
The welding unit is ready for the construction of the domestic space telescope "Millimetron"
The unparalleled welding machine was developed by order of the company "Information Satellite Systems" named after academician M. F. Reshetnev (included in the State Corporation "Roscosmos").
The apparatus was developed by specialists from the resource center of the Siberian State University of Science and technologies that worked in the framework of the project to develop an astrophysical observatory "Millimetron".
The main task of the created apparatus is to weld a polyimide film, the thickness of which does not exceed 20 microns. In the future, engineers will make special heat shields from this welded film, which will be realized from a double layer of film with an additional aluminum coating.
As conceived by the engineers, such a screen will reliably protect the spacecraft from any heat flux in space.
As the creators of the welding machine emphasize, their installation not only reliably welds two ultra-thin protective sheets (at the same time tensile strength is provided at a level of 90% of the nominal level), but also performs dynamic quality control of the welded seam. In this case, the device can weld a film with a side of 12 meters.
For reference. "Millimetron" — it is a spacecraft with a ten-meter antenna, capable of operating in two different modes. In the first mode, the telescope conducts a thorough study of various space objects in millimeter and infrared bands with the highest possible sensitivity provided by the operation of the equipment complex.
And another mode — this is the Cosmos-Earth interferometer. In this mode, scientific problems requiring special resolution up to tens of billionths of an arc second will be solved.
Well then, we will observe with particular interest the implementation of the project to create "Millimetron", as well as the creation of new unique devices in the Russian Federation.
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