Description du projet
Renforcer le développement de l’optomécanique pour l’exploration spatiale
L’optomécanique est essentielle pour garantir les performances des puissants télescopes qui nécessitent une masse réduite tout en satisfaisant à des exigences strictes de forme et de performance, notamment en tolérant les forces de gravité les plus importantes. Un principe structurel appelé tenségrité, ou intégrité en tension, sera fondamental pour répondre à ces exigences parfois contradictoires. L’Institut d’astrophysique des îles Canaries (IAC) exploite deux des meilleurs observatoires internationaux. Le projet LIOM, financé par l’UE, aidera l’IAC à créer une chaire EER et un laboratoire d’innovation en optomécanique. La chaire sera le fer de lance de projets visant à développer de nouvelles technologies optiques et de tenségrité pour la prochaine génération de télescopes destinés à l’imagerie à fort contraste d’exoplanètes orbitant autour d’étoiles très brillantes, afin de permettre la recherche de signes de vie.
Objectif
"Enabling large optical systems capable of resolving and measuring faint sources not accessible with current remote sensing instruments and detectors is the scientific overarching aim of LIOM by creating and sustain an excellent ERA Chairs optics and photonics' technology group of experimental physicists and astronomers, engineers, and technicians with an innovative optics and photonics technology environment. Under the leadership of the outstanding researcher and research manager Prof. Jeffrey Kuhn we aim to build a collaboration that will lead to the development of the next 50 years of astronomical telescopes - be they on the ground, space, or the moon.
The main objective is to build new capacities at the IAC, Canary Islands, to develop new optical and tensegrity technologies to incorporate into the next generation of telescopes aimed at high-contrast imaging of exoplanets around very bright stars to enable the search for signs of life. We've called this an ""ExoLife Finder (ELF)"" telescope but this direct imaging technology is equally important, for example, for the commercial study of man-made satellites in the terrestrial to CISLunar environments. LIOM optics technologies will also have important social benefits, for example the new ultra-thin and light mirrors created during this program would be key components of Earth-orbiting optically-linked satellites that will constitute the next phase of the ""world-wide web"" - the space-based global optical internet.
With the implementation of this ERA Chairs project, the IAC will enlarge its outstanding flagship in Europe and beyond, specifically in the field of optical remote sensing technologies for astronomical purposes, exemplifying not only the achievements in R&I and its capacity development or competitiveness, but also the creation of synergies with leading American and European institutions."
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternet
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticscavity optomechanics
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensing
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesnatural satellites
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetsexoplanetology
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedCoordinateur
38205 San Cristobal De La Laguna
Espagne