Without an ability to share design tools, the disciplines of thermal control, structures, and optics levy worst-case performance requirements on each other such that each specialty can contribute to a design independently. This results in a stack-up of margins and inevitably to over-design to the point of rendering advance missions such as the NGST, with its cryogenic large aperature optics, difficult to achieve without an integrated design approach. For example, temperature gradients in a mirror support structure are inconsequential as long as the required optical performance is achieved, yet derived limits on such gradients often become a design driver for thermal control specialists. Recent innovations by the proposed development team have eliminated many of the stumbling blocks that stymied previous attempts to achieve a tight integration between thermal control, structures, and optics. These advances include a finite element-compatible thermal radiation analyzer, thermal tools compatible with CAD databases, optimizing thermal/fluid solvers, and integrated structures/optics design and optimization. It is now possible to achieve not only an integrated tool suite, but also one that can automatically find the mimimum mass design that meets required optical performance under all structural load cases and thermal environments. Revolutionary designs are expected from a revolution in the design process.
