In the 2020s, fully autonomous constellations of mass produced, modest aperture, UV and IR telescopes could bring to space-based astronomical research many of the same benefits that have been provided by arrays and networks of autonomous ground-based visual-wavelength telescopes (eg the Las Cumbres Observatory). These constellations would not only expand the space research opportunities of professional astronomers, from graduate students to faculty, but thanks to economies of quantity production and their autonomous operation, could also open up research opportunities for undergraduate students and citizen scientists in a manner similar to what has already occurred with autonomous ground-based systems. The opportunity exists for a future of abundant space telescopes.
We must meet this opportunity with the requisite vigor, and originality of purpose, while simultaneously stewarding our community's unique relationship to the night sky, and respecting the sky as a shared heritage of all peoples.

A predecessor workshop, CubeSat Astronomy in the 2020s, was held on January 4, 2020, at the American Astronomical Society’s winter meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. The 70+ attendees were a mix of university and NASA scientists, engineers, and commercial company representatives, as well as a sizable contingent of published undergraduate and high school student and citizen scientist researchers.

Advances in technology, quantity production of components, lower launch costs, and wide-band communications should help create a synergistic balance between large and small telescopes in space. Constellations of fully autonomous UV and IR telescopes in space could provide time series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations of interesting objects identified by larger space and ground survey telescopes. Together, these telescopes could form a synergistic, efficient whole. If the cost of one of the constellations was low enough, it could become affordable for undergraduate and high school student research teams, as well as citizen scientists.

The workshop will consider:

• Consolidating research requirements with respect for specific constellation orbits, apertures, wavelengths, and sensors
• Timing of constellation deployments (should a small UV imaging constellation be first?)
• Designing constellations to be fully autonomous
• Efficiently producing constellation telescopes in quantity
• Standardizing hardware and software interfaces to facilitate interchangeable modular components across constellations
• Dedicating a low-cost constellation to student and citizen science research

And suggest how we can move forward:

• Scientists will need to group similar research programs in a manner that would allow them to be carried out by constellations that meet the needs of most researchers
• Industry will need to set standards, conduct feasibility studies, and provide cost estimates
• Educators, students, and citizen scientists will need to organize themselves in preparation for affordable access to space telescopes

History could repeat itself. Astronomical research began with small telescopes, but soon shifted to ever larger mountaintop telescopes. The microcomputer revolution led to arrays and networks of modest aperture, off-the-shelf, fully autonomous telescopes. They complemented the larger telescopes in a synergistic manner. Time on these autonomous telescopes became so affordable that published research by undergraduate students, high school students, and citizen scientists blossomed. Constellations of affordable, autonomous space telescopes could, in a similar manner, lead to the democratization of space telescope research, and new vistas of discovery.