Abstract: A large (10's of meters) aperture space telescope including two separate spacecraft—an optical primary objective lens functioning as a magnifying glass and an optical secondary functioning as an eyepiece. The spacecraft are spaced up to several kilometers apart with the eyepiece directly behind the magnifying glass “aiming” at an intended target with their relative orientation determining the optical axis of the telescope and hence the targets being observed. The objective lens includes a very large-aperture, very-thin-membrane, diffractive lens, e.g., a Fresnel lens, which intercepts incoming light over its full aperture and focuses it towards the eyepiece. The eyepiece has a much smaller, meter-scale aperture and is designed to move along the focal surface of the objective lens, gathering up the incoming light and converting it to high quality images.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 20, 1998
Date of Patent:
April 17, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy