Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories - Wrong Date

The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first generation stars, and early galaxies, are all extremely faint, which presents an ongoing challenge for current missions and is the opportunity space for next generation telescopes: larger telescopes are the primary (if not only) way to address this issue. With mission costs depending strongly on aperture diameter, scaling current space telescope technologies to aperture sizes exceeding 10 meters does not appear economically viable. Without a breakthrough in scalable technologies for larger telescopes, future advances in astrophysics will slow down or even stall.

The Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) project is a joint effort between NASA and Technion - Israel Institute of Technology to overcome the current scaling limitations for space optics via a novel approach based on fluidic shaping in microgravity. This technique has already been successfully demonstrated in a laboratory neutral buoyancy environment, in parabolic microgravity flights, and aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It is theoretically scale-invariant and has produced optical components with superb, sub-nanometer (RMS) surface quality. This talk will present the results to date and outline the work in progress, including FLUTE mission concepts currently under development.

Speaker: Edward Balaban, NASA Ames

Attend in person or online via YouTube.  See link at the weblink

Editor's Note: As of the time of listing, the date given for this event is March 23 which was the date of the last lecture.  We're listing this as April 27 as that would be the next scheduled meeting of the Eastbay Astronomical Association.  We'll update our listing when it is changed. 4/21 Update: We just learned that the actual meeting date was yesterday, 4/20.  The hosts never updated their website.