Tolerancing of a carbon fiber reinforced polymer metering tube structure of a high resolution space-borne telescope

High resolution space borne telescopes require dimensionally stable structures to meet very stringent optical requirements. Furthermore, high resolution space borne telescope structures need to have high stiffness and be lightweight in order to survive launch loads. Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are lightweight and have tailorable mechanical properties like stiffness and coefficient of thermal expansion. However, mechanical properties are highly dependent on manufacturing processes and manufacturing precision. Moreover CFRP tend to absorb moisture which affects dimensional stability of the structure in the vacuum environment. In order to get specified properties out of manufacturing, tolerances need to be defined very accurately.