  The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) is a set of
mission concepts for the next generation of UVOIR space observatory with a
primary aperture diameter in the 8-m to 16-m range that will allow us to
perform some of the most challenging observations to answer some of our most
compelling questions, including "Is there life elsewhere in the Galaxy?" We
have identified two different telescope architectures, but with similar optical
designs, that span the range in viable technologies. The architectures are a
telescope with a monolithic primary mirror and two variations of a telescope
with a large segmented primary mirror. This approach provides us with several
pathways to realizing the mission, which will be narrowed to one as our
technology development progresses. The concepts invoke heritage from HST and
JWST design, but also take significant departures from these designs to
minimize complexity, mass, or both.
  Our report provides details on the mission concepts, shows the extraordinary
scientific progress they would enable, and describes the most important
technology development items. These are the mirrors, the detectors, and the
high-contrast imaging technologies, whether internal to the observatory, or
using an external occulter. Experience with JWST has shown that determined
competitors, motivated by the development contracts and flight opportunities of
the new observatory, are capable of achieving huge advances in technical and
operational performance while keeping construction costs on the same scale as
prior great observatories.

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics;Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;Astrophysics of Galaxies;Solar and Stellar Astrophysics