New technology of lightened mirror production for optical telescopes

The increase of the primary mirror diameter for the modern telescopes brings to the necessity to search for the universal high-productive technology of optical mirror manufacture, that would allow loss of the optical quality. Such a technology has been developed by the authors. The main principle, taken as a basis, includes the fact, that the optical elements have a rigid light structure that is connected with the facial (operating) and rear plates in a non-detachable manner. The parameters of such a structure are chosen from the conditions to provide for the demands to the optical element rigidity, both in the exploitation and in the manufacture process as well. The optical elements (mirrors) produced by the given technology, surpass the known ones by their physical and mechanical characteristics, that allows to reach the ultimate optical characteristics, using in this case the traditional approaches and means for the optical surface processing. The given technology, in combination with bearing frame of the same construction and precision actuators (for example, magnetorheological ones), allows to create not only large mirrors but also segmented mirrors in large range of sizes.