Paper 13100-116
Paper 13100-116
Overview of DARPA’s liquid mirror telescope program, and open-source liquid optic modeling tools
21 June 2024 • 13:20 - 13:35 Japan Standard Time | Room G214, North - 2F
Abstract
Astronomy and Space Domain Awareness are limited by the size of available
telescope optics, the cost for which scales exponentially due to the exquisitely ground and polished glass primary mirrors. Liquid mirrors (LMs) may break this cost scaling. When rotated at a constant angular velocity, fluid surfaces take the form of a paraboloid. However, LMs cannot slew or tilt off-Zenith without spilling. To address these limitations and enable low-cost, very-large-aperture telescopes, DARPA launched the Zenith program. Zenith will develop modeling tools, materials, surface and field controls, and structures to demonstrate a meter-scale LM telescope without the need for rotation.
Presenter
Michael Nayak
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (United States)
Dr. Michael “Orbit” Nayak is a program manager at DARPA, with programs in the Strategic Technology Office and the Defense Sciences Office. Among other areas of research at DARPA, he is interested in inventive ways to apply techniques from astrophysics and planetary science to problems in space domain awareness, and started the “Zenith” liquid mirror telescope program in that vein. He holds a Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he was a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow. He holds additional graduate degrees in earth science, aerospace engineering and flight test engineering. Additionally, Nayak has worked as a space shuttle engineer and research section chief for the DoD’s largest telescope on Mt. Haleakala, Maui.