MIT Envisions ‘Guide Star’ Satellites to Stabilize Giant Telescopes





The MIT team estimates that a disturbance as small as 10 picometers could distort the coronagraph in such a telescope. MIT’s solution is the inclusion of small companion satellites that would go along with the telescope to shine a laser at the mirror. This bright, local reference point could be used to calibrate and maintain the instruments.

The Webb telescope’s segmented mirror.

This approach would not be without precedent. Astronomers have been using actual stars in the sky as guides to stabilize ground-based telescopes; they were used like signposts to compensate for imperfections in tracking mechanisms. In the late 20th century, scientists began using lasers to create artificial guide stars. The satellite proposal is simply sending a similar system into space with your telescope. This has the advantage of working no matter where you position the instrument, even if it’s far away from Earth.

The team is currently developing designs that rely on CubeSats, small shoebox-sized satellites that fit inside standard enclosures. NASA recently tested a pair of deep space CubeSats with the InSight lander — they made it all the way to Mars and relayed some of the lander’s data back to Earth. The MIT project could lead to a small network of guide star satellites that help stabilize telescopes as you survey far-flung parts of the sky. Guide star satellites may even make designing future telescopes cheaper and easier; that’s certainly been a problem with the Webb Telescope. 

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