Supporting the private spaceflight industry and government space agencies with thermo-optical measurements, instrumentation, and space coatings
Surface Optics has over 30 years of experience in the design, development, and application of precision thermal control and reflectance coatings on critical spaceflight hardware. With successful collaboration on hundreds of spaceflight programs, Surface Optics is a trusted resource for space coating services. Our measurements lab supports the development and validation of space material coatings, and our handheld reflectometers are in use by material engineers across the space sector to test hardware and coatings during the development, manufacture, and assembly cycle.
Space Satellite & Hardware Coatings
Surface Optics has spent years perfecting large area Vacuum Deposited Aluminum (VDA) and Gold (VDG) coatings. Surface Optics produces thin film coatings solutions for space applications, including: EMI/EMP shielded windows, satellite antenna coatings with controlled solar absorptance and emittance, micro-optic directionally coated IR spectrally tailored low emissive coatings, visually reflective microwave transparent coatings, high durability exo-atmospheric IR coatings, high-efficiency silver-based lens coatings, and satellite telescope low emittance thermal protective coating. Our facility is AS9100 certified.
Thermo-optical data
Surface Optics has, since its beginning, had the mission to provide optical properties data of thermal control coatings to thermal engineers. Optical characteristics of spacecraft materials are critical to the successful operation of space systems and mission success. Key thermo-optical properties for spacecraft components are solar absorptance (α), how much solar energy the material absorbs, and infrared emittance (ε), how much thermal energy the material can emit into space—the lower the α/ɛ ratio, the cooler the temperature of the spacecraft surface. Surface Optics manufactures thermo-optical measurement instrumentation for the government and growing industry of private spaceflight companies, in addition to providing solar absorptance and emittance measurement services.
Observatory mirrors
The reflectivity of a telescope’s primary mirror is one of the fundamental parameters related to telescope performance. Thus monitoring of reflectivity is broadly carried out at many observatories. The small dimension and lightweight nature of the SOC410 line of handheld reflectometers and emissometers enable the in-situ measurement of primary mirrors. These measurements are valuable for quality control of the telescope coating process, assessing the mirror’s reflectance at multiple spectral ranges after recoating and in-situ washing.
