Smart optics in ast.

Smart optics means much more than adaptive optics on telescopes: these new technologies are changing the way space instruments are built and operated and are bringing new technologies into everyday life in the form of cheaper, lighter and more robust optical systems. Steve Welch, Peter Doel, Alan Greenaway and Gordon Love summarize the work of the Smart Optics Faraday Partnership in the UK. Abstract The UK has several activities in the area of active and adaptive optics that have an excellent crossover with commercial applications. This article introduces some of the key areas of UK expertise – liquid crystal lenses, wavefront sensors and deformable mirrors – and shows how the need to develop these is closing the virtuous circle, with academic developments leading to commercial potential, and commercial development itself leading to enhancement in the instrumentation available for astronomy and space science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]