[Interview+] Can We Fix Liquid Mirror Telescopes' Biggest Problem?
Liquid mirror telescopes exist. But there's a big problem with them. They can only look directly up. Can we fix it? Can they work beyond the Earth's surface, in orbit or on the Moon? Finding out in this interview.
🟣 Guest: Dr. Alvaro Romero-Calvo https://lowgravitylab.ae.gatech.edu/
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PIVuv64h19c
Comments (9)
If you didn’t need to keep the material liquid, maybe you could have a liquid that would harden after it’s spinned up to shape. A material that would harden with a catalyst. Of course you’d never be able to reshape it.
This is how they already make mirrors. The mirror lab in Arizona does this to make the mirrors for many of the world's largest observatories.
Bonus update discussion about Alvaro's team's oxygen generation system for space travel at 25:18. You don't get that on the Youtube video.
Please shoot me down. The clumping of the fuel is only an issue when engines need to fire or fuel needed to transfer..... A few baffles and Spin up the vehicles..... It takes little energy and will create a homogeneous fuel mass hugging the tank walls
That only puts the fuel against the walls in a spinning ship, it doesn't solve the problem of transferring fuel from one ship to another. Neither does it solve the problem of using the fuel, it still has to be retrieved from the walls of a spinning vehicle and then pumped around to wherever it's needed, so yeah it puts the fuel in a predictable place but not much else. There are a few more problems to solve.
POOF! WE have our Magellan telescope for launch.
NOW! If you were to take 7 molds, expand your spinning furnace, aa 7 at once melt, your shape settles in, annealing leaves the shape pristine.
I've got a better idea. spin your mole, yes, BUT! We are molding glass, not just into a parabola, but set of elliptical mirrors as well. Go check out GMTO.org.
I was thinking that as well while watching the video. Spin molten glass at a high RPM until it is smooth, let it cool while it spins, then polish and apply mirroring. Eliminates the tedious grinding step.