中国科学院南京天文光学技术研究所机构知识库

China will establish a 2-meter space-based astronomical telescope. Its main

science goals are performing a sky survey for research about dark matter and dark energy, and high resolution observations. Some experts suggest that this space telescope should be installed inside the Chinese space station. In accord with this suggestion we put forward our first configuration, i.e., to adopt a coud´e system for this telescope. This coud´e system comes from the Chinese 2.16m telescope’s coud´e system, which includes a relay mirror so that excellent image quality can be obtained. In our second configuration, we suggest that the whole space telescope fly freely as an independent satellite outside the space station. When it needs servicing, for example, changing instruments, refilling refrigerant or propellant, etc., this space telescope can fly near or even dock with the core space station. Although some space stations have had accompanying satellites, the one we propose is a space telescope that will be much larger than other accompanying satellites in terms of weight and volume. On the basis of the second configuration, we also put forward the following idea: the space station can be composed of several large independent modules if necessary.