Eyeglass: a very large aperture diffractive space telescope

Roderick A. Hyde; Shamasundar N. Dixit; Andrew H. Weisberg; Michael C. Rushford

doi:10.1117/12.460420

18 December 2002 Eyeglass: a very large aperture diffractive space telescope

Roderick A. Hyde, Shamasundar N. Dixit, Andrew H. Weisberg, Michael C. Rushford

Proceedings Volume 4849, Highly Innovative Space Telescope Concepts; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460420
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

Eyeglass is a very large aperture (25 - 100 meter) space telescope consisting of two distinct spacecraft, separated in space by several kilometers. A diffractive lens provides the telescope's large aperture, and a separate, much smaller, space telescope serves as its mobile eyepiece. Use of a transmissive diffractive lens solves two basic problems associated with very large aperture space telescopes; it is inherently fieldable (lightweight and flat, hence packagable and deployable) and virtually eliminates the traditional, very tight, surface shape tolerances faced by reflecting apertures. The potential drawback to use of a diffractive primary (very narrow spectral bandwidth) is eliminated by corrective optics in the telescope's eyepiece. The Eyeglass can provide diffraction-limited imaging with either single-band, multiband, or continuous spectral coverage. Broadband diffractive telescopes have been built at LLNL and have demonstrated diffraction-limited performance over a 40% spectral bandwidth (0.48 - 0.72 μm). As one approach to package a large aperture for launch, a foldable lens has been built and demonstrated. A 75 cm aperture diffractive lens was constructed from 6 panels of 1 mm thick silica; it achieved diffraction-limited performance both before and after folding. This multiple panel, folding lens, approach is currently being scaled-up at LLNL. We are building a 5 meter aperture foldable lens, involving 72 panels of 700 μm thick glass sheets, diffractively patterned to operate as coherent f/50 lens.

Citation Download Citation

Roderick A. Hyde, Shamasundar N. Dixit, Andrew H. Weisberg, and Michael C. Rushford "Eyeglass: a very large aperture diffractive space telescope", Proc. SPIE 4849, Highly Innovative Space Telescope Concepts, (18 December 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460420

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