#OPTICAL TELESCOPE 100NM FULL#

It has been proposed that Itek’s optics and other hardware be test flown as part of the ATD program sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). With funding from the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), Itek Optical Systems has applied many of the techniques relevant to future space telescopes to create a fully active 4-meter mirror system with a very thin facesheet and lightweight carbon-fiber support structure. This report discusses the astronomical potential of a military project, which, it is claimed by its proponents, will provide astronomers with this technology validation at a relatively low cost.Īlthough this so-called Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD) mission is motivated by future national Before it rushes to embrace these new technologies, the astronomical community must have some confidence that mission-critical elements will work as advertised. And, neither NASA nor the astronomical community can afford another expensive and highly visible failure such as the HST’s spherical aberration.

Similarly, placing the telescope in a high Earth orbit can significantly increase observing efficiency and greatly reduce demanding operational constraints relative to those of a similar instrument in a low Earth orbit, such as the HST.Įach of these new concepts, however, carries a significant penalty in terms of increased risk. The use of a very thin, actively supported primary mirror, for example, can significantly reduce spacecraft mass. To be significantly less costly than the HST, a second-generation space telescope not only must employ many of the technologies outlined above, but also must utilize new operational concepts to reduce operating expenses. A necessary component of such systems, the optical sensors used to construct wavefront maps from star measurements, has also been developed and proven by researchers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The University of Arizona and the European Southern Observatory, for example, have demonstrated that 4-meter-class mirrors, equipped with multiple actuators, can achieve wavefront errors of better than 53 nm rms (admittedly with substantially more rigid mirrors than those discussed in this report). The feasibility of using wavefront sensors and active-optics systems to control the figure of mirror surfaces has been proven by many groups. New techniques for figuring and testing allow rapid and inexpensive polishing of large mirrors to accuracies rivaling or exceeding the HST’s. These new technologies allow us to make realistic plans for the next-generation of space telescopes -spacecraft with optical systems that are larger and lighter, yet much cheaper, than the HST’s. In the 15 years since the HST was built, enormous advances have been realized in the design, manufacturing, and testing of optical systems. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has vindicated many of these claims, but only at a very high cost. Images of astronomical bodies are not distorted by passage through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, and, in principle, observations are not limited by vagaries of the weather or the diurnal cycle.

#OPTICAL TELESCOPE 100NM FULL#

From this vantage point it is possible to view the full span of the electromagnetic spectrum. For decades astronomers have known about the advantages of locating astronomical telescopes in space.

Optical telescope 100nm