Innovative Technologies for Optical and Infrared Astronomy

TL;DR

This paper discusses recent efforts to identify and forecast disruptive and innovative technologies that could significantly advance ground-based optical and infrared astronomy, emphasizing the importance of adopting new tools from various fields.

Contribution

It presents a technology forecasting exercise focused on radical, potentially disruptive innovations in optical and infrared astronomy technologies.

Findings

Identification of promising disruptive technologies

Assessment of potential impact on astronomy

Guidance for future research and development

Abstract

Advances in astronomy are often enabled by adoption of new technology. In some instances this is where the technology has been invented specifically for astronomy, but more usually it is adopted from another scientific or industrial area of application. The adoption of new technology typically occurs via one of two processes. The more usual is incremental progress by a series of small improvements, but occasionally this process is disruptive, where a new technology completely replaces an older one. One of the activities of the OPTICON Key Technology Network over the past few years has been a technology forecasting exercise. Here we report on a recent event which focused on the more radical, potentially disruptive technologies for ground-based, optical and infrared astronomy.