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Completed TRL 1 (started at 1, targeting 1)
The diagram shows a conventional telescope pointed at an opaque disk along an axis to a distant target. Rather than block the view, the disk boosts the resolution of the system with no loss of collecting area. This architecture, dubbed the "Aragoscope" in honor of the scientist who first detected the diffracted waves, can be used to achieve the diffraction limit based on the size of the low cost disk, rather than the high cost telescope mirror. One can envision affordable telescopes that could provide 7cm resolution of the ground from geosynchronous orbit or images of the sky with one thousand times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Aragoscope is a concept for building giant telescopes in space in a practical and affordable manner. They can be used to view outward into space to perform astronomy with unprecedented resolution - hundreds or even thousands of times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope. Or, they can be used to look down at the Earth with unprecedented clarity from the high stable perch afforded by Geosynchronous Orbit.
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