An infinitely expandable space radiotelescope

Buyakas, V. I.; Danilov, Yu. I.; Dolgopolov, G. A.; Feoktistov, K. P.; Gorshkov, L. A.; Gvamichava, A. S.; Kardashëv, N. S.; Klimashin, V. V.; Komarov, V.I.; Mel'Nikov, N. P.; Narimanov, G. S.; Prilutsky, O. F.; Пшенников, А С; Rodin, V. G.; Рудаков, В. А.; Sagdeev, R. Z.; Savin, A. I.; Semenov, Yu. P.; Shklovskii, I. S.; Sokolov, A. G.; Tsarevsky, G. S.; Usyukin, V.I.; Zakson, M. B.

doi:10.1016/0094-5765(79)90155-3

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Clearly, various technical bottlenecks related to space telescope design prevent the antenna size from being very large. The use of inorbit splicing technology (e.g., [Buyakas et al(1979), Gurvits(2000)]) will allow the production of a lowfrequency telescope measuring 100 m or even 500 m. In the splicing technique, segments of a single large antenna are built and they are then joined together in space to produce a telescope using a robolic method. Several deployable telescopes or stations can be combined into a mini SKA in space.…”

Section: Space Vlbi In the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Space very long baseline interferometry in China

Tao

Hong

Zheng

et al. 2020

Advances in Space Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Space very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) has unique applications in high-resolution imaging of fine structure of astronomical objects and high-precision astrometry due to the key long space-Earth or space-space baselines beyond the Earth's diameter. China has been actively involved in the development of space VLBI in recent years. This review briefly summarizes China's research progress in space VLBI and the future development plan. Keyword: Radio Astronomy; space science; Very long baseline interferometry BackgroundVery long baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a modern observational technique based on combining geographically distributed radio telescopes to form an observation network, thereby enabling the highest possible angular resolution. The imaging resolution provided by VLBI is inversely proportional to the maximum baseline (the separation between two telescopes in the network) length and proportional to the observation wavelength. VLBI allows astronomers to observe the fine structure of compact celestial objects and acquire high-precision astrometry with sub-mas resolutions. Routinely operational VLBI networks, such as the European VLBI Network (EVN), the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) in the USA and East Asia VLBI Network (EAVN), have maximum baselines of 5000-10,000 km, and they yield high resolutions of 0.08-0.5 mas ], which are 100-600 times higher than those of the Hubble space telescope. However this is still not sufficient for some extremely compact unresolved objects. For example, imaging the black hole shadow of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the heart of the Milky Way, requires a resolution of about 0.02 mas, which is on a scale comparable to the event horizon of the SMBH [Goddi, et al.(2017)].Two conventional methods can be used to increase the imaging resolution: observing at highest possible frequency, and increasing the VLBI baseline length. The former method motivated the development of the Event Horizon Telescope [Doeleman(2017)] for directly observing the immediate environment of Sgr A* and M87 SMBHs at 230 GHz. The baseline lengths of ground-based VLBI networks are constrained by the size of the Earth. In order to acquire larger baseline length, astronomers have proposed sending radio telescopes into space to create a space-Earth VLBI network, i.e., space VLBI.Despite various technical difficulties and the huge associated costs, space VLBI can provide the highest resolution, as well as opening new observation windows in the electromagnetic spectrum by exploiting the lack of atmospheric disturbance in the space environment. Sub-millimeter (submm) wavelength and infrared observations from the Earth are highly constrained by the broad-band absorption of molecules in the atmosphere. Moreover, the turbulence in the atmosphere results in rapid fluctuations of the visibility phase to significantly reduce the coherence time for mm and submm wavelength interferometers, thereby decreasing the fringe detection sensitivity of VLBI. These factors motivated the development of spac...

show abstract

Section: Space Vlbi In the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Space very long baseline interferometry in China

Tao

Hong

Zheng

et al. 2020

Advances in Space Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The remedy for this problem is obvious but expensive: the space element must be large, certainly much larger than 10-m class antennas of the first generation SVLBI. A technological solution for such a hypothetical SKA-SVLBI system might come from the SKA itself: flat antenna structures of the Aperture Array design adopted as a key technology for the SKA is most consistent with the concept of an "extendable" space-borne radio telescope mentioned above (Buyakas et al 1979). Table 1.…”

Section: Space Vlbi In the Next Decadesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The story of the Hubble Space Telescope that has been seriously overhauled while in orbit demonstrates the efficiency of the approach. I note that the idea of assembling a large radio telescope in orbit has been proposed more than 30 years ago (Buyakas et al 1979).…”

Section: Space Vlbi In the Next Decadesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space radio astronomy in the next 1000001 (binary) years

Gurvits¹

2012

Proceedings of Resolving the Sky - Radio Interferometry: Past, Present and Future — PoS(RTS2012)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Radio astronomy and active exploration of space are peers: both began by efforts of enthusiasts in the 1930s and got a major technological boost in the 1940's-50's. Thus, for the sake of a brief review at this very special conference, it is fair to estimate the present age of these human endeavours as 1000001 2 years*. These years saw a lot of challenging and fruitful concerted efforts by radio astronomers and space explorers. Among the high points one can mention several highly successful space-borne CMB observatories, three orbital VLBI missions, the first examples of radio observations at spectral windows hitherto closed for Earth-based observers and many yet to be implemented initiatives which are at various stages of their paths toward launch-pads of all major world space agencies. In this review I will give a "bird's-eye" picture of the past achievements of space-oriented radio astronomy and zoom into several projects and ideas that will further push the presence of radio astronomy into the space agenda of mankind over the next 1000001 2 years. In tune with the main themes of this conference, an emphasis will be made on space frontiers of VLBI and the SKA.Resolving the Sky -Radio Interferometry: Past, Present and Future Manchester, UK

show abstract

“…Even here infrared astronomers have a fundamental advantage. A recently proposed giant space interferometer (Buyakas et al, 1979) consisting of individual telescopes a few kilometers in size separated by 10 Astronomical Units can, in principle, achieve an angular resolu tion of lO --^ arc seconds at 1-mm wavelength.…”

Section: Structure?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared Studies of Star-Forming Regions - Summary

Zuckerman

1981

Symp. - Int. Astron. Union

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When Gareth Wynn-Williams first asked me to give this summary talk he specifically requested that I be “provocative.” Having already been to Hawaii three times I realized how much easier it is to be laid back rather than provocative here - indeed, I but rarely rise above the ground energy state. So, the prospect of giving this talk has so terrified me that I have been sitting in the front row taking notes for two days now - something I have never done at any meeting. I even sought out the advice of an expert summarizer and first row sitter, my colleague Virginia Trimble, who advised me not to worry, but to simply “tell them what they should have said but didn't.”

show abstract

An infinitely expandable space radiotelescope

Cited by 17 publications

References 5 publications

Space very long baseline interferometry in China

Space very long baseline interferometry in China

Space radio astronomy in the next 1000001 (binary) years

Infrared Studies of Star-Forming Regions - Summary

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About