Related papers: The James Webb Space Telescope Mission
The historical development of ground based astronomical telescopes leads us to expect that space-based astronomical telescopes will need to be operational for many decades. The exchange of scientific instruments in space will be a…
New development approaches, including launch vehicles and advances in sensors, computing, and software, have lowered the cost of entry into space, and have enabled a revolution in low-cost, high-risk Small Satellite (SmallSat) missions. To…
Having achieved 'first-light' right before the opening ceremony on September 25, 2016, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is being busily commissioned. Its innovative design requires ~1000 points to be measured…
With stunning clarity, JWST has revealed the Universe's first billion years. The scientific community is analyzing a wealth of JWST imaging and spectroscopic data from that era, and is in the process of rewriting the astronomy textbooks.…
A modified version of the folded aplanatic Gregory telescope equipped with a spherical two-lens corrector is proposed for observations requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio. The basic telescope model has an aperture of 400 mm (f/3.0), its…
The Moon is our future. It may seem like a chimera with a projected cost in excess of 100 billion\$, and counting, dispensed on ARTEMIS with little to show to date. However it is the ideal site for the largest telescopes that we can dream…
To explore capabilities of moderate-size optical telescopes in surveys, the set of 9 new wide-field designs having apertures up to 1 m is considered. All but one systems have angular field of view in a range 3.5-10 degrees and flat focal…
The World Space Observatory Project is a new space mission concept, grown out the needs of the Astronomical community to have access to the part of the electromagnetic spectrum where all known physics can be studied on all possible time…
While space-based telescopes have had a part to play ultimately I feel that it is telescopes like myself that have contributed the most to pushing the boundaries of our knowledge. With current advances in optical engineering we have the…
SPACE (SPectroscopic All-sky Cosmic Explorer) is a class-M mission proposed to ESA for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call and recently promoted to the next assessment study phase. SPACE will produce the first all-sky spectroscopic survey of…
To meet the scientific goals of the Thirty Meter Telescope Project, full diffraction-limited performance is required from the outset and hence the entire observatory is being designed, as a system, to achieve this. The preliminary design…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will allow observations with a unique combination of spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution for the study of outer planet satellites within our Solar System. We highlight the infrared spectroscopy…
Studies of the distant Universe are providing key insights into our understanding of the formation of galaxies. The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has significantly enhanced our observational capabilities, leading to an…
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) has been the world's most successful single dish telescope at submillimetre wavelengths since it began operations in 1987. From the pioneering days of single-element photometers and mixers, through…
NASA's Kepler mission will fly a photometer based on a wide-field Schmidt camera with a 0.95 m aperture, staring at a single field continuously for at least 4 years. Although the mission's principal aim is to locate transiting extrasolar…
The Telescope to Observe Planetary Systems (TOPS) is a proposed space mission to image in the visible (0.4-0.9 micron) planetary systems of nearby stars simultaneously in 16 spectral bands (resolution R~20). For the ~10 most favorable…
The UW Mobile Planetarium Project is a student driven effort to bring astronomy to high schools and the Seattle community. We designed and built an optics solution to project WorldWide Telescope in an inflatable planetarium from a laptop…
The Twinkle Space Telescope is a satellite designed for spectroscopic observations of a wide range of extrasolar and solar system objects. Equipped with a 0.45 m diameter telescope and a spectrometer covering from 0.5 to 4.5 {\mu}m…
We provide an overview of the design and capabilities of the near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. NIRSpec is designed to be capable of carrying out low-resolution ($R\!=30\!-330$) prism spectroscopy…
We compare observed with predicted distributions of galaxy stellar masses $M_*$ and galaxy rest-frame ultra-violet luminosities per unit bandwidth $L_{UV}$, in the redshift range $z = 2$ to 13. The comparison is presented as a function of…