Development_Effort_for_Precision_Manufacturing_of_Starshade_Petals

The Starshade is a precision deployable structure hosting an optical payload that flies in formation with a space-based telescope to enable direct imaging of exoplanets. The Starshade reference design featured in this paper includes a 10-meter inner disk structure that hosts 24 8-meter long petals. The optical payload is a microns-precise profile created by sharp amorphous foil along the entire perimeter of the structure. The substructure that hosts this foil is referred to as the petal, and the perimeter of the petal structure comprises of several optical edge segments. This paper details the precision manufacturing of optical edge segments and a sub-scale petal structure. The optical edge segments are manufactured to meet the ideal shape profile within 25 microns RMS, with a mean of 11 microns RMS for all optical edge units. Four of these optical edges were then installed into the sub-scale Petal structure such that the overall profile width error was 25 microns RMS. This demonstrates that the optical payload components of the Starshade structure can be manufactured successfully with contemporary technology.