The team of researchers at Lockheed Martin sees a future where telescopes can be scaled up yet possessing the same capacity of current models at a price that is relatively cheaper.
Scaling up telescopes is important for achieving higher-resolution images of objects that are far away. However, the size, weight and power of bigger telescopes tend to dominate the system. Bringing huge and heavier telescopes into space is also very expensive.
"We can only scale the size and weight of telescopes so much before it becomes impractical to launch them into orbit and beyond," said senior research scientist Danielle Wuchenich at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California.
The researchers are using the so-called "SPIDER (Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-optical Reconnaissance)" technology in their quest to build lighter telescopes in the future. The technology is a flipside of the interferometry concept wherein objects are instead seen from space. Built with photonic integrated circuits, "SPIDER" does not need complex, precision alignment of huge lenses and mirrors.
Other possibilities brought by the technology include numerous configuration options of the eyes for increased placement option flexibility of the host; reduced risk on orbit; and a futuristic era of thin-disk shapes such as squares and hexagons that will replace the cylindrical shape found in today's telescopes.
"What's new is the ability to build interferometer arrays that have the same number of channels as a digital camera," said senior fellow Alan Duncan at Lockheed Martin.
Duncan had also compared interferometer arrays to a point-and-shoot camera wherein an image is produced after a snapshot is taken and processed.
The project, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is still on a nascent stage. Duncan said that its full potential can be achieved around five to ten years from now.
Apart from being a revolutionary technology in space, the team said that it also brings a number of potential applications. These include the creation of safety sensors used in cars and reconnaissance and targeting instruments that are used in maritime, aircraft and helicopters.
According to Duncan, the "SPIDER" technology brings exciting possibilities of using high-resolution imaging to discover planets that orbit on the outer planet system. Since resolution is increased by 10 to 100 times compared to traditional telescopes, there seems to be no limit to what one can discover in space.
