Our Nautilus Deep Space Observatory (NDSO) concept leverages the planned Deep Space Gateway (a next-generation space station in cis-lunar space) infrastructure for in-space fabrication, assembly, and servicing to provide a versatile, expandable, and very cost-effective space observatory with paradigm-changing light-collecting capabilities.
NDSO will provide a telescope array with autonomously operational unit telescopes that, when pointing to the same target, provide a light-gathering power revolutionizing time-domain astronomy and deep surveys.
Preliminary design concept for the Nautilus Deep Space Observatory.
In-space Fabrication: Zero-gravity molding of ultralight-weight space optics will allow orders-of-magnitude reduction in launch costs and greatly relaxed launch stress requirements. In the NDSO concept, the large MOD-EML lenses are molded in situ, i.e., inside the telescope array structure, alleviating the need for airlock transfer, extravehicular transport, and precision alignment, and minimizing the need for EVAs.
In-space Assembly: NDSO utilizes a modular approach and it is designed to minimize the number of individual structural components, greatly reducing the unit costs. We envision that a single launch would be capable of carrying components for 5-10 unit telescopes, which would be deployed and assembled via a robotic arm (similar to CanadArm on ISS) with EVAs reserved as contingency options.
Orbit: Assembly at the rectilinear halo orbit of the Deep Space Gateway allows NDSO to reach Earth-Sun L2 point with a minimal delta v expenditure. Similarly, the return of NDSO to the DSG for servicing and upgrades will require similarly modest velocity changes.