Rollable 'membrane mirrors' could pave way for bigger, more powerful space telescopes

A newly developed way to make telescope mirrors could enable much larger, and thus more sensitive, telescopes to be placed in orbit.

A scientist says it may be possible to create low-cost foldable telescope mirrors that are more than twice the size of those onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), whose giant iconic golden honeycomb mirror is the largest ever sent to space.

JWST's network of 18 gold-coated segments make up a primary mirror that's 21 feet, 4 inches (6.5 meters) in diameter. Now, a scientist has come up with a new method to produce extremely large telescope mirrors that he thinks will be thinner, lighter and more affordable than many of the optics currently in orbit.