Corning’s aerospace optics to probe exoplanets
Behind humanity’s mission to probe alien atmospheres is a remarkable Corning manufacturing plant in New Hampshire.
Corning and LLNL teams collaborate on the integration of a Corning-made telescope, called CODA, with key optics in the NASA Pandora mission.
This year, a space telescope enabled by Corning technology will begin a search to bring us closer to answering a perennial question: could life exist beyond Earth?
Pandora, a small satellite that NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are set to launch in 2025, will probe the atmospheres of dozens of planets beyond our solar system. Once in space, Pandora will allow scientists to collect a unique data set that can disentangle star and planet signals and help reveal the structure and makeup of these distant worlds.
To make this mission possible, NASA and LLNL turned to Corning’s Advanced Optics team in Keene, New Hampshire, to develop a telescope for Pandora that thrives in space using a versatile material: aluminum.
Corning and LLNL teams stand with the Corning-made telescope, CODA. (Left to Right) Duncan Spaulding, Will Weidner, Jeffrey Parenteau, Shawn Higbee (LLNL), Nick Volino, Brian Roy, Kent Sawyer, Jordan Karburn (LLNL), Alan Bressett, Jason Ballou, Jacqueline Thompson.
The U.S. facility making space exploration possible
Travel on the winding roads of Western New England and you’ll arrive at Corning’s Keene facility, located in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. When Corning acquired the facility in 2000, the plant was a key supplier of aluminum-based sensor systems for space use. Since then, Corning has expanded the plant, adding lab space in 2021, and growing capabilities to deliver fully integrated sensing systems.
“At our Keene facility, what we do is out of this world. With decades of research and development investment into the processing of aluminum for optical surfaces, rivaling the performance of glass, we have key capabilities all under one roof to turn our customers’ vision into reality,” said Jeff Baloun, Keene Plant Manager.
The Keene plant is turning NASA’s visions into reality for Pandora. The satellite will feature a Corning-made telescope that differs from usual space telescopes. CODA, as Pandora’s telescope is known, is made entirely from aluminum. It contrasts with traditional glass reflective telescopes, which are notoriously difficult to manufacture.
Once in space, Pandora and the CODA telescope inside it will allow researchers to explore in rich detail the 39 planets and 20 stars outside of the Solar System originally identified through the James Webb Space Telescope, another recent NASA project involving Corning optics. Using Corning technology, scientists will attempt to identify planets that have hydrogen- or water-dominated atmospheres, the types of environments needed to foster life.
Bringing Pandora to life
Like Corning’s contributions to Pandora, nearly every space optics project at the company’s facility in Keene begins in the precision machining shop, where aluminum and other metals are ground, shaped, and polished. Corning is a global leader in diamond turning, a cutting process that uses an ultra-sharp natural diamond to produce mirror-quality surfaces. The process can fabricate a variety of shapes, slits, and gratings at microscopic levels – oftentimes smaller than a human hair.
The result: more precise optical systems with greater sensitivity for Corning customers, helping them see detailed images of faraway phenomena in space, like the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System.
The Pandora mission has a novel all-aluminum telescope, called CODA, developed by Corning and LLNL.
After precision machining, Corning uses a proprietary thin-film-coating process to maximize the reflection of the optic, which helps the sensor system capture light to see as far as possible. While the human eye can only see light waves from wavelengths between 450-700 nanometers, a very narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, LLNL’s sensors allow viewers to cover a much larger spectrum, 400 to 2,500 nanometers, often from the near infrared to the ultraviolet within a single system.
Finally, Corning’s skilled team organizes the optics into fully integrated electro-optic assemblies, complete with electronics for use in a variety of systems and applications for customers.
Preparing for liftoff
Space applications like Pandora present unique challenges. Chief among them is the launch into space – one of the most stressful events a system can undergo. Aluminum, a lightweight material with strong thermal characteristics that can handle rapid shifts in temperature, thrives in such an environment. By using aluminum for optical systems, Corning also helps reduce launch payload, which lowers costs for customers.
Additionally, Corning performs advanced and rigorous testing on its optics. This process simulates the stresses that the system will undergo and determines if any piece will move out of alignment, even down to the micron level. Corning uses thermal shock chambers, a shock-vibration facility, humidity chambers, and simulations for deep cryogenic (<-448 °F) settings to help ensure the optical system retains its performance in a wide variety of environmental conditions.
After testing, the optical systems are ready for integration with customers’ satellites. Then, the satellite, including Pandora, can head into space, allowing scientists to search for planets that are capable of supporting life in the great beyond.
“It’s a point of pride knowing that what we do in Keene matters,” said Jeff. “Even while continuing our work on Pandora, the Keene team is pushing hard to support the next generation of life-changing space exploration.”