Astronomical Interferometer - Labeyrie's Hypertelescope

Labeyrie's Hypertelescope

Antoine Labeyrie has proposed the idea of an astronomical interferometer where the individual telescopes seen as parts of a fractionated spacecraft or a satellite constellation are positioned in a spherical arrangement (requiring the individual telescopes to be positioned to a fraction of a wavelength). This geometry reduces the amount of pathlength compensation required in re-pointing the interferometer array (in fact a Mertz corrector can be used rather than delay lines), but otherwise is little different from other existing instruments. He has suggested a space-based interferometer array much larger (and complex) than the Darwin and TPF projects using this spherical geometry of array elements and using a densified pupil beam combiner, and calls this his "Hypertelescope" project. It might theoretically show features on Earth-like worlds around other stars.

"Sitting on Labeyrie's drawing board are plans for a hypertelescope, a new breed of space telescope that is capable of mapping distant cousins of Earth in exquisite detail... Malcolm Fridlund, project scientist for ESA's Darwin mission in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is pragmatic. 'The costs would be really prohibitive,' he points out." (The hypertelescope: a zoom with a view. New Scientist, 23 February 2006)