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I don't think larger single mirrors is going to be a thing. The numerous advantages of hexagon arrays far outweigh (pun intended) the single drawback of the lar

I don't think larger single mirrors is going to be a thing. The numerous advantages of hexagon arrays far outweigh (pun intended) the single drawback of the large hexagonal diffraction spikes. The point spread function (PSF) is very well defined and can be easily worked around by some combination of PSF modeling, selecting a desired orientation, or multiple exposures. The Keck Telescope was the first major observatory to use this technique in 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keck_telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keck_telescope

topspin 3y ago
> I don't think larger single mirrors is going to be a thing. With regard to optical light space telescopes, one iteration of a single large mirror would be a great advancement. Hubble is only 2.4m. Back when NASA was developing Ares V there were proposals for an 8m optical space telescope. You can still find vestiges of that at NASA[1] and various videos of the launch and deployment. Maybe that can still happen with Starship, SLS or whatever. Just need a big enough payload fairing. [1] https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20100004890 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20100004890