Approaches to lowering the cost of large space telescopes

Abstract

New development approaches, including launch vehicles and advances in sensors, computing, and software, have lowered the cost of entry into space, and have enabled a revolution in low-cost, high-risk Small Satellite (SmallSat) missions. To bring about a similar transformation in larger space telescopes, it is necessary to reconsider the full paradigm of space observatories. Here we will review the history of space telescope development and cost drivers, and describe an example conceptual design for a low cost 6.5 m optical telescope to enable new science when operated in space at room temperature. It uses a monolithic primary mirror of borosilicate glass, drawing on lessons and tools from decades of experience with ground-based observatories and instruments, as well as flagship space missions. It takes advantage, as do large launch vehicles, of increased computing power and space-worthy commercial electronics in low-cost active predictive control systems to maintain stability. We will describe an approach that incorporates science and trade study results that address driving requirements such as integration and testing costs, reliability, spacecraft jitter, and wavefront stability in this new risk-tolerant "LargeSat" context.

Presented at SPIE, Optics+Photonics 2023, Astronomical Optics: Design, Manufacture, and Test of Space and Ground Systems IV in San Diego, CA, USA. Minor typos corrected and DOI added 2023 Oct 19th

References in corpus (14)

• The Scaling Relationship Between Telescope Cost and Aperture Size for Very Large Telescopes
• Scientific CMOS sensors in Astronomy: IMX455 and IMX411
• Demonstrating high-precision photometry with a CubeSat: ASTERIA observations of 55 Cancri e
• The Twins Embedding of Type Ia Supernovae II: Improving Cosmological Distance Estimates
• The Twins Embedding of Type Ia Supernovae I: The Diversity of Spectra at Maximum Light
• JWST NIRCam Defocused Imaging: Photometric Stability Performance and How it Can Sense Mirror Tilts
• James Webb Space Telescope Optical Simulation Testbed I: Overview and First Results
• In-focus wavefront sensing using non-redundant mask-induced pupil diversity
• Five years of BRITE-Constellation photometry of the luminous blue variable P Cygni: properties of the stochastic low-frequency variability
• A Year of Wavefront Sensing with JWST in Flight: Cycle 1 Telescope Monitoring and Maintenance Summary
• The Pandora SmallSat: Multiwavelength Characterization of Exoplanets and their Host Stars
• OWL-Moon: Very high resolution spectropolarimetric interferometry and imaging from the Moon: exoplanets to cosmology
• Design of the vacuum high contrast imaging testbed for CDEEP, the Coronagraphic Debris and Exoplanet Exploring Pioneer
• Three-sided pyramid wavefront sensor. II. Preliminary demonstration on the new CACTI testbed