FIRST-S (Fibered Imager foR a Single Telescope)

Study the visible emission of exozodiacal light in the habitable zone around the closest star

The scientific objective of this mission would be to study the visible emission of exozodiacal light in the habitable zone around the closest stars. Use single-mode fibers to combine multiple apertures in a pupil plane as such as to synthesize a bigger aperture. The advantages with respect to a pure imager are relaxed tolerance on the pointing and cophasing, higher accuracy in phase measurement, and iii) availability of compact, precise, and active single-mode optics like Lithium Niobate