In a press release made on October 22nd 2014, NASA will test later this year onboard the ISS a new a compact solar
coronagraph
design that utilizes a light baffle made of a super-black carbon nanotube coating.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by NASA
The effort will help determine whether the carbon nanotubes are as effective as black paint, the current state-of-the-art technology, for absorbing stray light in complex space instruments and components.
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The new compact coronagraph — designed to reduce the mass, volume, and cost of traditional coronagraphs by about 50 percent — will use a single set of lenses, rather than a conventional three-stage system, to image the solar corona, and more particularly, coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These powerful bursts of solar material erupt and hurdle across the solar system, sometimes colliding with Earth's protective magnetosphere and posing significant hazards to spacecraft and astronauts.
"Compact coronagraphs make greater demands on controlling stray light and diffraction," Rabin explained, adding that the corona is a million times fainter than the sun's photosphere. Coating the baffle or occulter with the carbon-nanotube material should improve the component's overall performance by preventing stray light from reaching the focal plane and contaminating measurements.
The project is well timed and much needed, Rabin added.
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Article here :-
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/...l#.VEkyLtauigQ
