The secrets of paper-folding applied to telescopes

origamiby Brett Jordan

Origami Nanosats: The Future of Space Telescopes?
[Via Planetary Society Weblog]

We interview Dr. Franck Marchis from the SETI Institute about nanosats that can unfold in space to create sensitive telescopes that are orders of magnitudes cheaper than current hardware.

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Pretty cool idea. Nanosats are very small satellites easily carried as a small part of cargo by LEO rockets. So costs a e pretty small. And if the rocket fails, you are not out a whole lot of money,

By expanding up to a meter in diameter, they can provide a large aperture telescope. It can collect wavelengths that do not even make it to Earth.

Here is what it looks like:

Several can be slaved together to make an even larger virtual telescope. Still a ways to go but nice to think about.