U.S. military research division known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has recently developed a space telescope.
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| Artist's concept of the foldable plastic telescope. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1f1Jjz0) |
As reported by Ubergizmo on Tuesday, April 21, 2014, the space telescope can be snapped pictures Earth in high-resolution detail. As well as the design of this telescope device called the Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation or MOIRE.
This DARPA-made telescope which aims at replacing conventional glass optics with lightweight polymer membranes that may one day make possible a foldable plastic orbital telescope 20 m (65 ft) wide that will be capable of seeing a medium-sized dog on Earth from 36,000 km (22,000 miles) away. This is an ideal altitude orbit for communications satellites.
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| Concept of a space-based polymer telescope. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1f1Jjz0) |
Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation (MOIRE) program manager, Larry Gun said optical membrane allows for DARPA to adjust the size of the telescope high resolution in a package smaller and lighter.
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| Optical membrane showing diffraction pattern. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1f1Jjz0) |
He said, this telescope to be a breakthrough because scientists are pinning certain materials in optical design. Thus, production costs can be cut without sacrificing quality.
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| Section of the MOIRE membrane optic. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1f1Jjz0) |
"We hope our research can also help reduce overall costs and allows for use of smaller launch vehicles and cheaper," said Larry. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | UBERGIZMO]
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