The Luonnotar Astronomical Space Telescope (LAST) is a space telescope designed to conduct visible to ultraviolet astronomy. It is the largest telescope in the Lys system and is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, allowing it to view exoplanets from as far as 10,000 light years away.

LAST completed assembly on 25 December 2399 at the Lys-Ukko L2 point, making it the first large scale orbital construction outside of Luonnotar's sphere of influence. It released its first image to the public less than 2 months later.

Features

LAST has a 20 meter diameter aluminium and magnesium fluoride coated beryllium primary mirror made up of 198 separate hexagonal mirros. The mirrors segments are coated with aluminium to provide reflectivity, and on top of it is the magnesium fluoride layer which protects the aluminium from oxidation as well as to increase the reflection of ultraviolet light.

Location and orbit

LAST operates in a halo orbit, circling a point known as the Lys-Ukko L2 Lagrange point. This point was chosen as it was far enough from Lys that cooling systems could be less complex, while at the same time constantly receive sunlight from the sun-facing side of the spacecraft. The orbit is also wide enough that Ukko would not block direct communications between LAST and Luonnotar.

Sunshield protection

LAST is equipped with several sensitive instruments that require low temperatures to conduct proper experiments. The sunshield blocks light and heat from Lys, Ukko and its moons, and its position at the L2 point continously keeps all the bodies on the same side of the spacecraft.

The sunshield was cut from scrap sheets of film from the ships previously used to send humans to the Lys system, saving time and cost. Only one sheet of scrap film was required to make the three layers of sunshield needed for the telescope.

Optics

LAST's primary mirror is a 20m diameter aluminium and magnesium fluoride coated beryllium reflector with a collecting area of roughly 310 m2. It was decided to make the mirror in segments using an already existing mirror manufacturing plant at the Luonnotar L2 point that was used to create small or prototype telescopes, to save on cost, and for ease of transport to Ukko. The mirror segments were transported to Ukko's L2 point where final assembly of LAST took place.