New Technologies for Astronomy

Abstract

Many of the scientific advances that have been described at this meeting have come about as a result of the application to astronomy of the new technologies of the 20th Century, most obviously electronics, computing and spaceflight. It would be foolish to attempt a comprehensive review of the capabilities that may open up in the 21st Century, but the organizers of this meeting have asked me to suggest some possibilites. I have chosen three general topics: new materials, active systems and computing. This somewhat eclectic choice is of course strongly influenced by my own interests and recent experiences. Given the shortage of time, I will not discuss astronomical detectors, despite the fact that this is undoubtedly an area where many of the most important developments will arise. This imbalance will be partially redressed in the second part of this session, in which Mike Perryman will talk about superconducting tunnel junctions: devices which are already the detectors of choice in the millimetre waveband and have great potential at optical and X-ray wavelengths.