First steps in the development of a piston sensor for large aperture space telescopes

Nowadays spaceborne missions for astronomy or Earth imaging need high resolution observation which implies the development of large aperture telescopes. This can be achieved by multi-aperture telescopes or large segmented telescopes. One of the major issues is the phasing of the sub-apertures or the segments of such telescopes. A cophasing sensor is therefore mandatory to achieve the ultimate resolution of these telescopes. In this framework, Liège Space Center (CSL) concern is the development of a compact cophasing sensor to phase new large lightweight segmented mirrors for future space telescopes. The sensor concept has its origins in new phase retrieval algorithms which have been recently developed. In this paper, we outline the concept and the experimental validation results of our piston sensor breadboard which is currently under development in our laboratory. Finally, future prospects and further developments of our experiment are presented.