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Astrophysics
Index: #62

Frontier Telescopes Are Expensive and Take Decades to Build

The current model for building space telescopes is cost-prohibitive and slow, often requiring decades of development. New approaches that exploit reduced launch costs and modular assembly are needed to accelerate telescope construction and reduce costs, and there needs to be the organizational structure and hunger to adopt such methods.

Foundational Capabilities (3)

Leveraging Modular Assembly & Reduced Launch Costs for Space Telescopes

Leverage the reduced launch costs enabled by vehicles like Starship and employ modular assembly techniques to build telescopes more rapidly and economically.
  • Architecture for in-space robotic assembly of a modular space telescope
    Research and Reviews
  • Towards robotic on-orbit assembly of large space telescopes: Mission architectures, concepts, and analyses
    Research and Reviews
  • Project Nautilus
    Technology Seed
  • It’s Time to Build the Exoplanet Telescope, by Casey Handmer
    Whitepapers and Essays

    • Leveraging Commercial Component Advances

    Utilize advances in commercial components and software to accelerate the development cycle of telescopes.
  • Argus Array
    Initiative
  • Morning Star Missions to Venus
    Initiative
  • The Dragonfly Telephoto Array
    Initiative

    • Space Telescope Factory

    Standardize a broadly capable design, and create a space telescope factory to produce modular components at scale, dramatically reducing the cost and time required for mission development.
  • Planet Labs
    Company
  • Aaron Tohuvavohu
    Individual