SPACE: A new, thin-lensed telescope design could far surpass James Webb – goodbye mirrors, hello diffractive lenses. “Almost all space telescopes, including Hubble and Webb, collect light using mirrors. Our proposed telescope, the Nautilus Space Observatory, would replace large, heavy mirrors with a novel, thin lens that is much lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than mirrored telescopes. Because of these differences, it would be possible to launch many individual units into orbit and create a powerful network of telescopes.”

Camera makers like Canon and Nikon have been using diffractive elements in certain lenses to make them smaller and lighter while maintaining excellent optical quality. There’s no reason the same approach couldn’t work for space telescopes — where every gram lifted to orbit counts.