3 ms·
It's a huge piece of very pure glass, that has a precise uniform shape down to the nanometers scale. Another thing that I learned is they are first ground to a
by gosub100 3y ago
It's a huge piece of very pure glass, that has a precise uniform shape down to the nanometers scale. Another thing that I learned is they are first ground to a spherical shape, then a parabolic. It's a very time consuming process, although I don't have exact data.
- Someone 3y agoAnd it’s time consuming partly because so few are made. I guess the unit price could come down by 90% or more if you were to order a million of them, and could convince a manufacturer that you’re good for the money. (And you may get something that’s superior, for example because they figure out that, at a million copies, extra money spent improving the software for adaptive optics can be more than made up by making the hardware a bit less rigid) We’re spoilt by the amazing efficiencies of mass manufacturing.