Ares V- Astronomy Workshop

Saturday & Sunday 26-27 April 2008

 

Concepts for future space telescopes are constrained by the capacities of existing launch vehicles. In particular, the desire for apertures larger than the diameters of the widest existing fairings (~ 5 m) has forced the use of deployable segmented (rather than monolithic) primary mirrors. Even deployable mirrors are constrained by the sizes of their launch vehicles' fairings. The introduction of the Ares V heavy-lift launch vehicle, under development as part of the Constellation Program, may benefit a new generation of space-based observatories. The Ares V will have a capacity similar to that of the Saturn V, dwarfing those of current vehicles: an 8-10 m fairing and the ability to lift ~ 130 t to low-Earth orbit. It may allow the deployment of currently-infeasible telescopes and may provide a lower-cost means of deploying others (relative to, for instance, assembly in space from multiple smaller payloads).

The goals of this workshop are to:

1) Bring together the scientists and engineers interested in launching observatories on Ares V.

2) Try to determine which concepts are truly enabled by Ares V (that is, those that would not be feasible in the next 10-20 years through other means).

3) Examine which astronomical questions those telescopes would be uniquely capable of addressing.

4) Discuss the programmatic issues surrounding such observatories, including schedule, cost, etc.

The scope of the meeting includes facilities for all wavelengths of light as well as for other particles, such as cosmic rays. Discussion of monolithic- and deployable-aperture telescopes, as well as constellations, are all appropriate. Possible low-cost telescopes are of particular interest.

Three questions should be addressed during the workshop:

1. What astronomical investigations does Ares V enable, which would be infeasible through other means?
   
2. What are some "design reference missions" which convey both the capabilities and general requirements of observatories flown on Ares V?
   
3. What are the important programmatic considerations surrounding such concepts?