Extremely large optical space telescope comprising formation-flying ultra-small satellites: science requirements and telescope concept

Yuichi Matsuda; Toshihiro Tsuzuki; Naoki Kohara; Kazuhisa Mitsuda; Atsushi Noda; Yuichiro Ezoe; Naoshi Murakami

doi:10.1117/12.3018148

23 August 2024 Extremely large optical space telescope comprising formation-flying ultra-small satellites: science requirements and telescope concept

Yuichi Matsuda, Toshihiro Tsuzuki, Naoki Kohara, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Atsushi Noda, Yuichiro Ezoe, Naoshi Murakami

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13092, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 130926O (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018148
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Conference Poster

Abstract

In order to spatially resolve the surface environment of the second Earth within 10 parsec from us and theoretically predicted gaseous accretion disk around the first stars at around z = 20, we require an optical infrared space telescope with an aperture of 100 km to achieve a spatial resolution of 1 microarcsecond and a sensitivity of 34 magnitudes. However, the realization of such an extremely large space telescope is technically challenging and requires a breakthrough beyond existing telescope ideas. Here, we propose a new telescope concept with a combination of multiple diffractive optical elements and electromagnetic formation flight of 1 - 100 million ultra-small satellites in Sun-Earth L2 halo orbit. To determine the telescope concept, we performed an alignment error analysis of a segmented optical system with many optical elements. As a result, we selected multiple diffractive optical elements, which have huge advantages over lenses and mirrors in terms of required alignment accuracy as well as volume / mass. We have started feasibility studies of this new concept to check if the required spatial resolution and sensitivity can be achieved with multiple diffractive optical elements, by comparing numerical predictions and ground experiments. In this presentation, we introduce the science cases, science requirements, and telescope concept.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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Yuichi Matsuda, Toshihiro Tsuzuki, Naoki Kohara, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Atsushi Noda, Yuichiro Ezoe, and Naoshi Murakami "Extremely large optical space telescope comprising formation-flying ultra-small satellites: science requirements and telescope concept", Proc. SPIE 13092, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 130926O (23 August 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018148

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