Misplaced Pages

#434565

81-668: The MSSS was first envisioned as an optical research observatory in the early 1950s. It was initiated by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1961 as the ARPA Midcourse Optical Station (AMOS). It was first proposed by R. Zirkind of ARPA's staff for imaging ballistic missile payloads and decoys during their midcourse phase, and other space objects including satellites, in the infrared spectrum, as well as for performing astronomical research. Its location on Mount Haleakala

162-524: A Nasmyth-style telescope to deliver the light (usually through the declination axis) to a fixed focus point that does not move as the telescope is reoriented gives a coudé focus (from the French word for elbow). The coudé focus gives a narrower field of view than a Nasmyth focus and is used with very heavy instruments that do not need a wide field of view. One such application is high-resolution spectrographs that have large collimating mirrors (ideally with

243-537: A common mount. MOTIF is used primarily for Long Wave infrared (LWIR) and photometric data collection. Other equipment at MSSS includes a 1.6-meter telescope that performs day and night tracking and imaging, a 0.8-meter beam director/tracker, and a 0.6-meter laser beam director. The telescopes accommodate a wide variety of sensor systems, including imaging systems, conventional and contrast mode photometers , infrared radiometers, low light level video systems, and acquisition telescopes. The MSSS site, also hosts assets for

324-638: A concave secondary mirror that reflects the image back through a hole in the primary mirror. This produces an upright image, useful for terrestrial observations. Some small spotting scopes are still built this way. There are several large modern telescopes that use a Gregorian configuration such as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope , the Magellan telescopes , the Large Binocular Telescope , and

405-570: A cooperation among Bell Labs , General Electric and MIT , which DARPA supported by funding Project MAC at MIT with an initial two-million-dollar grant. DARPA supported the evolution of the ARPANET (the first wide-area packet switching network), Packet Radio Network, Packet Satellite Network and ultimately, the Internet and research in the artificial intelligence fields of speech recognition and signal processing, including parts of Shakey

486-403: A desired paraboloid shape that requires minimal grinding and polishing to reach the exact figure needed. Reflecting telescopes, just like any other optical system, do not produce "perfect" images. The need to image objects at distances up to infinity, view them at different wavelengths of light, along with the requirement to have some way to view the image the primary mirror produces, means there

567-426: A hole in the primary. The folding and diverging effect of the secondary mirror creates a telescope with a long focal length while having a short tube length. The Ritchey–Chrétien telescope, invented by George Willis Ritchey and Henri Chrétien in the early 1910s, is a specialized Cassegrain reflector which has two hyperbolic mirrors (instead of a parabolic primary). It is free of coma and spherical aberration at

648-490: A mechanically advantageous position. Since reflecting telescopes use mirrors , the design is sometimes referred to as a catoptric telescope . From the time of Newton to the 1800s, the mirror itself was made of metal – usually speculum metal . This type included Newton's first designs and the largest telescope of the 19th century, the Leviathan of Parsonstown with a 6 feet (1.8 m) wide metal mirror. In

729-408: A moderate field of view. A 6" (150mm) f/15 telescope offers a maximum 0.75 degree field of view using 1.25" eyepieces. A number of variations are common, with varying numbers of mirrors of different types. The Kutter (named after its inventor Anton Kutter ) style uses a single concave primary, a convex secondary and a plano-convex lens between the secondary mirror and the focal plane, when needed (this

810-526: A much more compact instrument, one which can sometimes be successfully mounted on the Cassegrain focus. Since inexpensive and adequately stable computer-controlled alt-az telescope mounts were developed in the 1980s, the Nasmyth design has generally supplanted the coudé focus for large telescopes. For instruments requiring very high stability, or that are very large and cumbersome, it is desirable to mount

891-529: A nearly flat focal plane if the primary and secondary curvature are properly figured , making it well suited for wide field and photographic observations. Almost every professional reflector telescope in the world is of the Ritchey–Chrétien design. Including a third curved mirror allows correction of the remaining distortion, astigmatism, from the Ritchey–Chrétien design. This allows much larger fields of view. The Dall–Kirkham Cassegrain telescope's design

SECTION 10

#1732782778435

972-666: A number of new technologies that were developed within the framework of the GXV-T program. The goal of this program is to create a lightly armored combat vehicle of not very large dimensions, which, due to maneuverability and other tricks, can successfully resist modern anti-tank weapon systems. In September 2020, DARPA and the US Air Force announced that the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) are ready for free-flight tests within

1053-505: A primary and secondary concave mirror, with the same curvature, and the same tilt to the main axis. Most Yolos use toroidal reflectors . The Yolo design eliminates coma, but leaves significant astigmatism, which is reduced by deformation of the secondary mirror by some form of warping harness, or alternatively, polishing a toroidal figure into the secondary. Like Schiefspieglers, many Yolo variations have been pursued. The needed amount of toroidal shape can be transferred entirely or partially to

1134-422: A rotating mirror consisting of a liquid metal in a tray that is spun at constant speed. As the tray spins, the liquid forms a paraboloidal surface of essentially unlimited size. This allows making very big telescope mirrors (over 6 metres), but they are limited to use by zenith telescopes . In a prime focus design no secondary optics are used, the image is accessed at the focal point of the primary mirror . At

1215-562: A whole series of X planes over the next 10 years. Between 2014 and 2016, DARPA shepherded the first machine-to-machine computer security competition, the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), bringing a group of top-notch computer security experts to search for security vulnerabilities , exploit them, and create fixes that patch those vulnerabilities in a fully automated fashion. It is one of DARPA prize competitions to spur innovations. In June 2018, DARPA leaders demonstrated

1296-478: A ‘reflecting’ telescope in 1663. It would be ten years (1673), before the experimental scientist Robert Hooke was able to build this type of telescope, which became known as the Gregorian telescope . Five years after Gregory designed his telescope and five years before Hooke built the first such Gregorian telescope, Isaac Newton in 1668 built his own reflecting telescope , which is generally acknowledged as

1377-469: Is Stefanie Tompkins . As of 2021 , their mission statement is "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security". The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was suggested by the President's Scientific Advisory Committee to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a meeting called after the launch of Sputnik. ARPA was formally authorized by President Eisenhower in 1958 for

1458-648: Is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency ( ARPA ), the agency was created on February 7, 1958, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957. By collaborating with academia, industry, and government partners, DARPA formulates and executes research and development projects to expand

1539-399: Is actually less than a classical Cassegrain. Because this is less noticeable at longer focal ratios , Dall–Kirkhams are seldom faster than f/15. There are several designs that try to avoid obstructing the incoming light by eliminating the secondary or moving any secondary element off the primary mirror's optical axis , commonly called off-axis optical systems . The Herschelian reflector

1620-412: Is always some compromise in a reflecting telescope's optical design. Because the primary mirror focuses light to a common point in front of its own reflecting surface almost all reflecting telescope designs have a secondary mirror , film holder, or detector near that focal point partially obstructing the light from reaching the primary mirror. Not only does this cause some reduction in the amount of light

1701-630: Is an Air Force Research Laboratory center currently managed by the University of Hawaii and is located in the Maui Research and Technology Park in Kihei . The MHPCC is a leading computing resource of the Department of Defense research and development community and operates numerous computer clusters, including a 5,120 processor Dell Poweredge cluster named "Jaws" which, as of November 2006,

SECTION 20

#1732782778435

1782-474: Is composed of a solid glass cylinder whose front surface has been ground to a spherical or parabolic shape. A thin layer of aluminum is vacuum deposited onto the mirror, forming a highly reflective first surface mirror . Some telescopes use primary mirrors which are made differently. Molten glass is rotated to make its surface paraboloidal, and is kept rotating while it cools and solidifies. (See Rotating furnace .) The resulting mirror shape approximates

1863-586: Is credited with boosting the development of the fledgling personal computer industry. Some young computer scientists left the universities to startups and private research laboratories such as Xerox PARC . Between 1976 and 1981, DARPA's major projects were dominated by air, land, sea, and space technology, tactical armor and anti-armor programs, infrared sensing for space-based surveillance, high-energy laser technology for space-based missile defense, antisubmarine warfare, advanced cruise missiles, advanced aircraft, and defense applications of advanced computing. Many of

1944-451: Is equipped with an adaptive optics system, the heart of which is a 941-actuator deformable mirror that can change its shape to remove the atmosphere's distorting effects. Scientists are expected to get near diffraction-limited images of space objects. The Maui Optical Tracking and Identification Facility (MOTIF) is also hosted at the MSSS site. The system consists of two 1.2-meter telescopes on

2025-513: Is fast enough to track both low-Earth satellites and ballistic missiles . AEOS can be used simultaneously by many groups or institutions because its light can be channeled through a series of mirrors to seven independent Coudé focus rooms below the telescope. Employing sophisticated sensors that include an adaptive optics system, radiometer , spectrograph , and long-wave infrared imager, the telescope tracks man-made objects in deep space and performs space object identification data collection. AEOS

2106-559: Is named after William Herschel , who used this design to build very large telescopes including the 40-foot telescope in 1789. In the Herschelian reflector the primary mirror is tilted so the observer's head does not block the incoming light. Although this introduces geometrical aberrations, Herschel employed this design to avoid the use of a Newtonian secondary mirror since the speculum metal mirrors of that time tarnished quickly and could only achieve 60% reflectivity. A variant of

2187-408: Is one of the simplest and least expensive designs for a given size of primary, and is popular with amateur telescope makers as a home-build project. The Cassegrain telescope (sometimes called the "Classic Cassegrain") was first published in a 1672 design attributed to Laurent Cassegrain . It has a parabolic primary mirror, and a hyperbolic secondary mirror that reflects the light back down through

2268-453: Is placed just to the side of the light entering the telescope, and positioned afocally so as to send parallel light on to the tertiary. The concave tertiary mirror is positioned exactly twice as far to the side of the entering beam as was the convex secondary, and its own radius of curvature distant from the secondary. Because the tertiary mirror receives parallel light from the secondary, it forms an image at its focus. The focal plane lies within

2349-480: Is the case of the catadioptric Schiefspiegler ). One variation of a multi-schiefspiegler uses a concave primary, convex secondary and a parabolic tertiary. One of the interesting aspects of some Schiefspieglers is that one of the mirrors can be involved in the light path twice — each light path reflects along a different meridional path. Stevick-Paul telescopes are off-axis versions of Paul 3-mirror systems with an added flat diagonal mirror. A convex secondary mirror

2430-451: Is the reflector telescope's basic optical element that creates an image at the focal plane. The distance from the mirror to the focal plane is called the focal length . Film or a digital sensor may be located here to record the image, or a secondary mirror may be added to modify the optical characteristics and/or redirect the light to film, digital sensors, or an eyepiece for visual observation. The primary mirror in most modern telescopes

2511-684: Is typically on the order of one second of arc . Spanning over 30 years, the evolution of the Maui Space Surveillance System has demonstrated several stages in the history of space object tracking telescopes . Currently, through its primary mission for the United States Space Force, Space Operations Command, (formerly, Air Force Space Command), the Maui Space Surveillance System combines large-aperture tracking optics with visible and infrared sensors to collect data on near Earth and deep-space objects. In

Maui Space Surveillance Complex - Misplaced Pages Continue

2592-564: The Army Corps of Engineers . Construction was complete by 1967, after which the telescopes and control systems were evaluated, calibrated, and tested until mid 1969. In 1969, AMOS potential had been demonstrated, and the Air Force took charge as ARPA's agent. The University of Michigan was replaced by industrial contractors, and numerous system improvements and additions then took place over subsequent years. In 1984, DARPA transferred it to

2673-492: The Giant Magellan Telescope . The Newtonian telescope was the first successful reflecting telescope, completed by Isaac Newton in 1668. It usually has a paraboloid primary mirror but at focal ratios of about f/10 or longer a spherical primary mirror can be sufficient for high visual resolution. A flat secondary mirror reflects the light to a focal plane at the side of the top of the telescope tube. It

2754-660: The Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system. In addition to these assets, the site has a machine shop, optics laboratories, and electronics laboratories. A Remote Maui Experimental (RME) site at sea level houses additional optics and electronics laboratories. This secondary observation station at Kihei bears IAU code 625 and is located at 20°44′46″N 156°25′54″W  /  20.74611°N 156.43167°W  / 20.74611; -156.43167 . The Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC)

2835-597: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) and the military space programs to the individual services. This allowed ARPA to concentrate its efforts on the Project Defender (defense against ballistic missiles), Project Vela (nuclear test detection), and Project AGILE ( counterinsurgency R&D) programs, and to begin work on computer processing, behavioral sciences , and materials sciences. The DEFENDER and AGILE programs formed

2916-507: The Schmidt camera , which use both a spherical mirror and a lens (called a corrector plate) as primary optical elements, mainly used for wide-field imaging without spherical aberration. The late 20th century has seen the development of adaptive optics and lucky imaging to overcome the problems of seeing , and reflecting telescopes are ubiquitous on space telescopes and many types of spacecraft imaging devices. A curved primary mirror

2997-519: The atmosphere . Situated at the crest of the dormant volcano Haleakala ( IAU code 608), the observatory stands at an altitude of 3058 metres, latitude 20.7 degrees N, and longitude 156.3 degrees W. It is essentially co-located with IAU code 566 , Haleakala- NEAT / GEODSS . Virtually year-round viewing conditions are possible due to the relatively stable climate. Dry, clean air and minimal scattered light from surface sources enable visibility exceeding 150 km. Based on double star observations, seeing

3078-672: The personal computer and the internet on the list of innovations for which DARPA can claim at least partial credit." Its track record of success has inspired governments around the world to launch similar research and development agencies. DARPA is independent of other military research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA comprises approximately 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who together oversee about 250 research and development programs. The agency's current director, appointed in March 2021,

3159-478: The 19th century a new method using a block of glass coated with very thin layer of silver began to become more popular by the turn of the century. Common telescopes which led to the Crossley and Harvard reflecting telescopes, which helped establish a better reputation for reflecting telescopes as the metal mirror designs were noted for their drawbacks. Chiefly the metal mirrors only reflected about 2 ⁄ 3 of

3240-623: The Adaptive Suspension Vehicle (ASV) nicknamed the "Walker" at the Ohio State University , under a research contract from DARPA. The vehicle was 17 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 10.5 feet high, and had six legs to support its three-ton aluminum body, in which it was designed to carry cargo over difficult terrains. However, DARPA lost interest in the ASV, after problems with cold-weather tests. On February 4, 2004,

3321-818: The Agency was centered on information processing and aircraft-related programs, including the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) or Hypersonic Research Program. The Strategic Computing Program enabled DARPA to exploit advanced processing and networking technologies and to rebuild and strengthen relationships with universities after the Vietnam War . In addition, DARPA began to pursue new concepts for small, lightweight satellites ( LIGHTSAT ) and directed new programs regarding defense manufacturing, submarine technology, and armor/anti-armor. In 1981, two engineers, Robert McGhee and Kenneth Waldron, started to develop

Maui Space Surveillance Complex - Misplaced Pages Continue

3402-429: The Air Force, which renamed it as MSSS in 1995. The accessibility and capability of the Maui Space Surveillance System provides an unequaled opportunity to the scientific community by combining state-of-the-art satellite tracking with a facility supporting research and development. The Maui Space Surveillance System, is routinely involved in numerous observing programs and has the capability of projecting lasers into

3483-489: The Cassegrain, the Schiefspiegler telescope ("skewed" or "oblique reflector") uses tilted mirrors to avoid the secondary mirror casting a shadow on the primary. However, while eliminating diffraction patterns this leads to an increase in coma and astigmatism. These defects become manageable at large focal ratios — most Schiefspieglers use f/15 or longer, which tends to restrict useful observations to objects which fit in

3564-435: The advances in reflecting telescopes included the perfection of parabolic mirror fabrication in the 18th century, silver coated glass mirrors in the 19th century (built by Léon Foucault in 1858), long-lasting aluminum coatings in the 20th century, segmented mirrors to allow larger diameters, and active optics to compensate for gravitational deformation. A mid-20th century innovation was catadioptric telescopes such as

3645-649: The agency shut down its so called "LifeLog Project". The project's aim would have been, "to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does". On October 28, 2009, the agency broke ground on a new facility in Arlington County, Virginia a few miles from The Pentagon . In fall 2011, DARPA hosted the 100-Year Starship Symposium with the aim of getting the public to start thinking seriously about interstellar travel. On June 5, 2016, NASA and DARPA announced that it planned to build new X-planes with NASA 's plan setting to create

3726-498: The agency's research portfolio, and two additional offices that manage special projects. All offices report to the DARPA director, including: A 1991 reorganization created several offices which existed throughout the early 1990s: A 2010 reorganization merged two offices: A list of DARPA's active and archived projects is available on the agency's website. Because of the agency's fast pace, programs constantly start and stop based on

3807-510: The early explorers' discoveries. TRANSIT, sponsored by the Navy and developed under the leadership of Richard Kirschner at Johns Hopkins, was the first satellite positioning system." During the late 1960s, with the transfer of these mature programs to the Services, ARPA redefined its role and concentrated on a diverse set of relatively small, essentially exploratory research programs. The agency

3888-613: The edge of that same field of view they suffer from off axis aberrations: There are reflecting telescope designs that use modified mirror surfaces (such as the Ritchey–Chrétien telescope ) or some form of correcting lens (such as catadioptric telescopes ) that correct some of these aberrations. Nearly all large research-grade astronomical telescopes are reflectors. There are several reasons for this: The Gregorian telescope , described by Scottish astronomer and mathematician James Gregory in his 1663 book Optica Promota , employs

3969-490: The first reflecting telescope. It used a spherically ground metal primary mirror and a small diagonal mirror in an optical configuration that has come to be known as the Newtonian telescope . Despite the theoretical advantages of the reflector design, the difficulty of construction and the poor performance of the speculum metal mirrors being used at the time meant it took over 100 years for them to become popular. Many of

4050-579: The first scientist to administer ARPA, managed to raise its budget to $ 250 million. It was Ruina who hired J. C. R. Licklider as the first administrator of the Information Processing Techniques Office , which played a vital role in creation of ARPANET , the basis for the future Internet. Additionally, the political and defense communities recognized the need for a high-level Department of Defense organization to formulate and execute R&D projects that would expand

4131-404: The focal point is some type of structure for holding a film plate or electronic detector. In the past, in very large telescopes, an observer would sit inside the telescope in an "observing cage" to directly view the image or operate a camera. Nowadays CCD cameras allow for remote operation of the telescope from almost anywhere in the world. The space available at prime focus is severely limited by

SECTION 50

#1732782778435

4212-665: The foundation of DARPA sensor, surveillance , and directed energy R&D, particularly in the study of radar , infrared sensing, and x-ray / gamma ray detection. ARPA at this point (1959) played an early role in Transit (also called NavSat) a predecessor to the Global Positioning System (GPS). "Fast-forward to 1959 when a joint effort between DARPA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory began to fine-tune

4293-545: The frontiers of technology and science, often beyond immediate U.S. military requirements. The name of the organization first changed from its founding name, ARPA, to DARPA, in March 1972, changing back to ARPA in February 1993, then reverted to DARPA in March 1996. The Economist has called DARPA "the agency that shaped the modern world," with technologies like " Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine ... weather satellites , GPS , drones , stealth technology , voice interfaces ,

4374-604: The frontiers of technology beyond the immediate and specific requirements of the Military Services and their laboratories. In pursuit of this mission, DARPA has developed and transferred technology programs encompassing a wide range of scientific disciplines that address the full spectrum of national security needs. From 1958 to 1965, ARPA's emphasis centered on major national issues, including space, ballistic missile defense , and nuclear test detection. During 1960, all of its civilian space programs were transferred to

4455-423: The instrument on a rigid structure, rather than moving it with the telescope. Whilst transmission of the full field of view would require a standard coudé focus, spectroscopy typically involves the measurement of only a few discrete objects, such as stars or galaxies. It is therefore feasible to collect light from these objects with optical fibers at the telescope, placing the instrument at an arbitrary distance from

4536-530: The light and the metal would tarnish . After multiple polishings and tarnishings, the mirror could lose its precise figuring needed. Reflecting telescopes became extraordinarily popular for astronomy and many famous telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope , and popular amateur models use this design. In addition, the reflection telescope principle was applied to other electromagnetic wavelengths, and for example, X-ray telescopes also use

4617-434: The mirror near its edge do not converge with those that reflect from nearer the center of the mirror, a defect called spherical aberration . To avoid this problem most reflecting telescopes use parabolic shaped mirrors , a shape that can focus all the light to a common focus. Parabolic mirrors work well with objects near the center of the image they produce, (light traveling parallel to the mirror's optical axis ), but towards

4698-453: The movement of the telescope in order to avoid collision with obstacles such as walls or equipment inside the observatory. The Nasmyth design is similar to the Cassegrain except the light is not directed through a hole in the primary mirror; instead, a third mirror reflects the light to the side of the telescope to allow for the mounting of heavy instruments. This is a very common design in large research telescopes. Adding further optics to

4779-403: The need to avoid obstructing the incoming light. Radio telescopes often have a prime focus design. The mirror is replaced by a metal surface for reflecting radio waves , and the observer is an antenna . For telescopes built to the Cassegrain design or other related designs, the image is formed behind the primary mirror, at the focal point of the secondary mirror . An observer views through

4860-638: The needs of the U.S. government. Structured information about some of the DARPA's contracts and projects is publicly available. DARPA is well known as a high-tech government agency, and as such has many appearances in popular fiction. Some realistic references to DARPA in fiction are as "ARPA" in Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X (DARPA consults on a technical threat), in episodes of television program The West Wing (the ARPA-DARPA distinction),

4941-646: The next year. Victoria Coleman became the director of DARPA in November 2020. In recent years, DARPA officials have contracted out core functions to corporations. For example, during fiscal year 2020, Chenega ran physical security on DARPA's premises, System High Corp. carried out program security, and Agile Defense ran unclassified IT services. General Dynamics runs classified IT services. Strategic Analysis Inc. provided support services regarding engineering, science, mathematics, and front office and administrative work. DARPA has six technical offices that manage

SECTION 60

#1732782778435

5022-414: The primary mirror. In large focal ratios optical assemblies, both primary and secondary mirror can be left spherical and a spectacle correcting lens is added between the secondary mirror and the focal plane ( catadioptric Yolo ). The addition of a convex, long focus tertiary mirror leads to Leonard's Solano configuration. The Solano telescope doesn't contain any toric surfaces. One design of telescope uses

5103-797: The principles of curved mirrors, discussed the idea of building a telescope using a mirror as the image forming objective. There were reports that the Bolognese Cesare Caravaggi had constructed one around 1626 and the Italian professor Niccolò Zucchi , in a later work, wrote that he had experimented with a concave bronze mirror in 1616, but said it did not produce a satisfactory image. The potential advantages of using parabolic mirrors , primarily reduction of spherical aberration with no chromatic aberration , led to many proposed designs for reflecting telescopes. The most notable being James Gregory , who published an innovative design for

5184-621: The process of accomplishing its mission, the observatory has discovered a number of asteroids (see § List of discovered minor planets ) The 3.67-meter telescope, known as the Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS), owned by the Department of Defense , is the United States' largest optical telescope designed for tracking satellites. The 75-ton AEOS telescope points and tracks very accurately, yet

5265-699: The purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, and able to reach far beyond immediate military requirements. The two relevant acts are the Supplemental Military Construction Authorization ( Air Force ) (Public Law 85-325) and Department of Defense Directive 5105.15, in February 1958. It was placed within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and counted approximately 150 people. Its creation

5346-429: The rear of the telescope, or a camera or other instrument is mounted on the rear. Cassegrain focus is commonly used for amateur telescopes or smaller research telescopes. However, for large telescopes with correspondingly large instruments, an instrument at Cassegrain focus must move with the telescope as it slews; this places additional requirements on the strength of the instrument support structure, and potentially limits

5427-459: The reflection principle to make image-forming optics . The idea that curved mirrors behave like lenses dates back at least to Alhazen 's 11th century treatise on optics, works that had been widely disseminated in Latin translations in early modern Europe . Soon after the invention of the refracting telescope , Galileo , Giovanni Francesco Sagredo , and others, spurred on by their knowledge of

5508-653: The robot . DARPA also supported the early development of both hypertext and hypermedia . DARPA funded one of the first two hypertext systems, Douglas Engelbart 's NLS computer system, as well as The Mother of All Demos . DARPA later funded the development of the Aspen Movie Map , which is generally seen as the first hypermedia system and an important precursor of virtual reality . The Mansfield Amendment of 1973 expressly limited appropriations for defense research (through ARPA/DARPA) only to projects with direct military application. The resulting " brain drain "

5589-661: The same diameter as the telescope's primary mirror) and very long focal lengths. Such instruments could not withstand being moved, and adding mirrors to the light path to form a coudé train , diverting the light to a fixed position to such an instrument housed on or below the observing floor (and usually built as an unmoving integral part of the observatory building) was the only option. The 60-inch Hale telescope (1.5 m), Hooker Telescope , 200-inch Hale Telescope , Shane Telescope , and Harlan J. Smith Telescope all were built with coudé foci instrumentation. The development of echelle spectrometers allowed high-resolution spectroscopy with

5670-677: The successful programs were transitioned to the Services, such as the foundation technologies in automatic target recognition , space-based sensing, propulsion, and materials that were transferred to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), later known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), now titled the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). During the 1980s, the attention of

5751-423: The system collects, it also causes a loss in contrast in the image due to diffraction effects of the obstruction as well as diffraction spikes caused by most secondary support structures. The use of mirrors avoids chromatic aberration but they produce other types of aberrations . A simple spherical mirror cannot bring light from a distant object to a common focus since the reflection of light rays striking

5832-471: The system of mirrors, but is accessible to the eye with the inclusion of a flat diagonal. The Stevick-Paul configuration results in all optical aberrations totaling zero to the third-order, except for the Petzval surface which is gently curved. The Yolo was developed by Arthur S. Leonard in the mid-1960s. Like the Schiefspiegler, it is an unobstructed, tilted reflector telescope. The original Yolo consists of

5913-478: The television program Numb3rs , and the Netflix film Spectral . Reflecting telescope#Coudé A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector ) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image . The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time,

5994-400: Was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration . Although reflecting telescopes produce other types of optical aberrations , it is a design that allows for very large diameter objectives . Almost all of the major telescopes used in astronomy research are reflectors. Many variant forms are in use and some employ extra optical elements to improve image quality or place the image in

6075-529: Was created by Horace Dall in 1928 and took on the name in an article published in Scientific American in 1930 following discussion between amateur astronomer Allan Kirkham and Albert G. Ingalls, the magazine editor at the time. It uses a concave elliptical primary mirror and a convex spherical secondary. While this system is easier to grind than a classic Cassegrain or Ritchey–Chrétien system, it does not correct for off-axis coma. Field curvature

6156-556: Was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnik and to U.S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Initial funding of ARPA was $ 520 million. ARPA's first director, Roy Johnson, left a $ 160,000 management job at General Electric for an $ 18,000 job at ARPA. Herbert York from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was hired as his scientific assistant. Johnson and York were both keen on space projects, but when NASA

6237-452: Was established later in 1958 all space projects and most of ARPA's funding were transferred to it. Johnson resigned and ARPA was repurposed to do "high-risk", "high-gain", "far out" basic research, a posture that was enthusiastically embraced by the nation's scientists and research universities. ARPA's second director was Brigadier General Austin W. Betts, who resigned in early 1961 and was succeeded by Jack Ruina who served until 1963. Ruina,

6318-511: Was nearly ideal for its altitude high above much obscuration by water vapor, for its midcourse location between the missile launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base and its main reentry location at Kwajalein Atoll , and for its low-latitude location which was advantageous for observing satellites. The AMOS effort formally began with an amendment to an existing ARPA order with the University of Michigan 's Institute for Science and Technology, which

6399-573: Was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972, and during the early 1970s, it emphasized direct energy programs, information processing, and tactical technologies. Concerning information processing, DARPA made great progress, initially through its support of the development of time-sharing . All modern operating systems rely on concepts invented for the Multics system, developed by

6480-518: Was the 11th most powerful computing systems in the world. The Center also has a 12,096 core IBM iDataplex Cluster, named "Riptide" which as November 2013 attained a peak performance Linpack performance of 212 Teraflops and ranked #192 on the Top500 in November 2013. 20°42′30″N 156°15′29″W  /  20.70833°N 156.25806°W  / 20.70833; -156.25806 DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA )

6561-474: Was to design, construct, and operate the facility. This amendment defined the AMOS goals as follows: "(1) Identification and signature of space objects; (2) an active program to advance the state of the art in infrared technology and high-resolution imagery; (3) a research program in geophysics and astrophysics including the astronomical community." Design was completed in 1963, and physical plant construction begun by

#434565