The approach is to use foundational materials science, structural design, thermal analysis, optic fabrication, and space systems engineering, and to use optimize them through large-scale simulation to realize meter-scale telescopes at 10X cost reduction.  LLNL’s folded Gregorian design integrates all alignment sensitive components into one static monolithic system.  Like solid-…

Monolithic Telescopes are a novel implementation of a solid catadioptric design form, instantiated in a monolithic block of fused silica.

LLNL is developing the Space-based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris (STARE). STARE is a constellation of low cost nano-satellites (less than 5Kg) in low-earth orbit dedicated to the observation of space debris in conjunction with a ground-based infrastructure for maintenance, coordination and data processing. Each nano-satellite in the constellation is capable of recording an…