OWL CONCEPT OVERVIEW

As a series of 8- to 10 -m class telescopes come into op eration worldwide, the scientific c hallenges these instruments do already address, together with their space-based counterparts, imply that t he increase in lightgathering power and resolution of the next generation of telescopes will have to exceed conventional scaling factors. Indeed, it seems unavoidable that t he same progress in telescope diameter and resolution achieved throughout t he ce ntury must now be realized within at most a c ouple of decades. The technologies required for such extrapolation appear realistically to be within reach. Large telescopes successfully commissioned within the last decade have demonstrated key technologies s uch as active optics and segmentation. Furthermore, current design methods and fabrication processes imply that the technological challenge of constructing telescopes up to the 100-m range could, in some critical areas, be simpler than those underlying, two decades ago, the design and construction of 8- to 10-m class telescopes. At system level, however, such giants are no size-extrapolated fusion of VLT and Keck, but fully integrated adaptive systems. We elaborate on the OWL concept of a 100-m telescope with integrated adaptive optics capability, identify major conceptual differences with classical, non-adaptive telescopes, and derive design drivers accordingly. We also discuss critical system and fabrication aspects, and the possible timeline for the concept to be realized.