Tootfinder

Optical Design Pathways to Fluidic Space-Assembled Reflectors & Dual-Configuration Spectrographs for Characterizing Exo-Earths
Enrico Biancalani, Edward Balaban, Ruslan Belikov, Eduardo Bendek, Valeri Frumkin, Israel Gabay, Guangjun Gao, Qian Gong, Christine Gregg, Tyler Groff, Joseph Howard, Omer Luria, Michael McElwain, Lee Mundy, Rachel Ticknor, Sylvain Veilleux, Neil Zimmerman

Optical Design Pathways to Fluidic Space-Assembled Reflectors & Dual-Configuration Spectrographs for Characterizing Exo-Earths
$\textbf{Fluidic Telescopes}$ | We present a conceptual framework for optically designing space-assembled telescopes whose primary mirror is formed $\textit{in situ}$ via the enabling, scale-invariant technology of fluidic shaping. In-space assembly of optical reflectors can solve light-gathering aperture scaling, which currently limits space-borne optical telescopes. Our compass reduces the top-level optical design trade to three types of avenues -- a fluidic pathway, a legacy one buildin…