Workshop Overview:
The goal of our study is to create a new paradigm in UV/Optical instrument design, detector technology, and optics that will form the technological foundation for the next generation of UV/Optical missions. Discoveries from GALEX, FUSE, HST, Cassini (UVIS), and Rosetta (ALICE) have opened up exciting new areas to be explored in UV/Optical science. At the same time, recent advances in nanotechnology and nanoengineering are creating new designer materials with unprecedented control over performance. When coupled with novel device design, these nano-engineered materials lead to new approaches in the design of detectors, sources, and optical instruments with tailored response and bandpass. The combination of these technological advances with exciting new questions in cosmology, astrophysics and planetary science, makes this a crucial moment for achieving revolutionary leaps forward in UV/Optical instrumentation and science.
We will review the science requirements for pioneering new areas, review and evaluate the emerging technologies, and develop a strategy which both links science requirements to currently available technologies and looks to the future. We will evaluate and prioritize various technologies for optics, coatings, new detector approaches, and new instrument designs; and we will recommend the promising areas for development. Through this study, the UV/Optical community will be in a stronger position to play a leading role in the concept and design of future missions based on these pioneering innovative technologies.