The Single Aperture Far Infrared (SAFIR) observatory is a high priority mission for NASA and space astronomy. This ten-meter diameter telescope, operating at <10 Kelvin, will chart the formation of galaxies and elements in the early universe, map debris disks around stars to track hidden planets, and explore the chemistry of life in the universe. While baselined as an autonomously deployed telescope, we consider enabling factors that in-space operations would bring to this telescope -in particular, servicing opportunities that would dramatically increase the scientific lifetime and productivity of the observatory. The use of humans and robots to support and conduct servicing, at the operational site of Earth-Sun L2 and primarily at Earth-Moon L1, are considered, and the required capabilities are reviewed. SAFIR shares many characteristics of future large telescopes in space, and strategies developed for this strawman case are applicable for broader planning efforts.

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Two recent meetings sponsored by NASA have helped define the in-space capabilities (technology, operations and infrastructure) necessary to enable and enhance future space missions. The activities preceded NASA's roadmapping efforts that occurred from the fall of 2004 to spring of 2005. These Loya Jirga meetings (using a Pashto expression for "grand council") involved about 100 representatives from industry, academia and government. Three mission concepts were used to guide the products of the meetings: manned missions to Mars, large serviceable space telescopes, and unmanned nuclear-powered missions to the outer planets. The deliberations produced roadmaps for the timing and type of developments needed to support these missions, the interconnections of capabilities with missions and other details that can be used to guide investment planning.

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The Extra-Solar Planetary Imager (ESPI) is envisioned as a space based, high dynamic range, visible imager capable of detecting Jovian like planets. Initially proposed as a NASA Midex (NASA/Medium Class Explorer) mission (PI:Gary Melnick), as a space-based 1.5 x 1.5 m 2 Jacquinot apodized square aperture telescope. The combination of apodization and a square aperture telescope reduces the diffracted light from a bright central source increasing the planetary to stellar contrast over much of the telescope focal plane. As a result, observations of very faint astronomical objects next to bright sources with angular separations as small as 0.32 arcseconds become possible. This permits a sensitive search for exo-planets in reflected light. ESPI is capable of detecting a Jupiter-like planet in a relatively long-period orbit around as many as 160 to 175 stars with a signal-to-noise ratio > 5 in observations lasting maximally 100 hours per star out to ~16 parsecs. We discuss the scientific ramifications, an overview of the system design including apodizing a square aperture, signal to noise issues and the effect of wavefront errors and the scalability of ESPI with respect to NASA s Terrestrial Planet Finder mission.