Innovative focal plane design for large space telescopes

Future large drift-scan space telescopes, providing high angular resolution and sensitive observations, require long linear focal planes covering large fields of view. In order to reach higher on-earth spatial resolution while keeping a large field of view, the use of homothetic imaging systems is prohibitive for VIS/IR applications. Based on Integral Field Unit technology developed for ground based instrumentation, we present an innovative optical system reorganizing a 1D field of view on a 2D detector array. Such a solution presents a high gain in terms of volume and weight, allowing compact cryogenic systems for IR observations.