The Sky-Mirror Initiative: A Preliminary Architecture and Physical Constraints for an Earth-Moon-Scale Sparse-Aperture Optical Interferometer
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The Sky-Mirror Initiative is a preliminary architecture for an Earth-Moon-scale sparse-aperture optical interferometer. High-Earth-orbit collector spacecraft sample an astronomical wavefront, correct group delay and phase, and relay the optical fields to a beam-combination and metrology hub near Earth-Moon L1. The system is neither a Newtonian reflector nor a configuration in which L1 is a geometric focus. Its phase model includes the incident delay across the array and unequal collector-to-hub paths; precision modeling must also include relativistic frequency transfer and orbital dynamics. At 500 nm, an 80,000 km projected baseline gives a nominal fringe scale of 1.29 nanoarcsec, but not equivalent image fidelity. The central feasibility questions are projected-baseline coverage, sparse-aperture imaging, photon collection, starlight suppression, relay loss, metrology, and formation dynamics. This is a non-peer-reviewed preprint, Version 1.0.
Author: Tan, Wanmin
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7171491876
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