Fluidic Telescopes Could Breakthrough Cost Limits to 50 Meter Space Telescopes
by Brian Wang from NextBigFuture.com on (#684EN)
The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. A NASA NIAC Phase 1 study will look at a space observatory with a large-aperture (50-meter) unsegmented primary mirror suitable for a variety of astronomical applications. The mirror would be created in space via a novel approach based on fluidic shaping in microgravity, which has ...