A Large Monolithic Telescope Placed at the Second Sun-Earth Lagrange Point

Abstract

The payload mass and volume capabilities of the planned Ares V launch vehicle provide the science community with unprecedented opportunities to place large science payloads into low earth orbit and beyond. One example, the outcome of a recent study condu cted at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a large, monolithic telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 6 .2 meters placed into a halo orbit about the second Sun -Earth Lagrange point, or L2, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit. Opera ting in the visible and ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, such a large telescope would allow astronomers to detect bio -signatures and characterize the atmospheres of transiting exo planets, provide high resolution imaging three or more t imes better than the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, and observe the ultraviolet light from warm baryonic matter.