Far-Infrared/Submillimeter Astronomical Interferometry with Spaceborne Tether Formations

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• 作者：Enrico Lorenzini ; Claudio Bombardelli ; Mario Cosmo ; Martin Harwit ; David Leisawitz ; Rodger Farley ; Stephen Rinehart ; David Quinn and David Miller
• 关键词：Instrumentation ; Mi ; scellaneous ; Space vehicles ; Miscellaneous ; Techniques ; Miscellaneous ; Astronomical data bases ; Miscellaneous
• 刊名：Astrophysics and Space Science
• 出版年：2006
• 出版时间：April, 2006
• 年：2006
• 卷：302
• 期：1-4
• 页码：225-239
• 全文大小：719 KB

文摘

Through the continuing development of improved detectors and detector arrays, far-infrared/submillimeter astronomical space missions have had enormous successes in recent years. Despite these advances, the diffraction-limited angular resolving power has remained virtually constant. The advent of telescopes with apertures of several meters will improve this capability, but will still leave image resolution many orders of magnitude poorer than in most other spectral ranges. Here we point out that the only foreseeable way to improve image quality to rival that of modern optical telescopes will be with interferometers whose light collectors are connected by tethers. After making the scientific case for high spatial resolution far-infrared/submillimeter imaging and the use of interferometry as the most immediate way of producing results, we discuss recent advances in dynamic analysis and control of tethered formations, and argue that the further development and testing of tethers in space is a first step toward providing improved far-infrared/submillimeter angular resolution and astronomical image quality.