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Space Interferometry Mission. Oral session, Wednesday, January
07 International Ballroom Center, Optical and infrared
interferometers are expected to provide the next great leap
forward in space-based astronomy beyond the Hubble Space
Telescope. The first of these next generation astronomy missions
will be the Space Interferometer Mission (SIM). Although capable
of producing marvelous science, interferometry does not come
without a certain price attached: that price is the considerable
technical challenge of successfully building and operating these
exacting instruments. Successful development of SIM requires
that three grand technological challenges be met and overcome:
nanometer level control and stabilization of optical element on
a lightweight flexible structure; (2) sub-nanometer level
sensing of optical element relative positions over meters of
separation distance; (3) overall instrument complexity and the
implications for interferometer inte