CASTOR: the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and Ultraviolet Research

The Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and UV Research (CASTOR) is a proposed CSA mission that would make a unique, powerful, and lasting contribution to astrophysics by providing panoramic, high-resolution imaging in the UV/optical (0.15 - 0.55 μm) spectral region. This versatile `smallSAT'-class mission would far surpass any ground-based optical telescope in terms of angular resolution, and would provide ultra-deep imaging in three broad lters to supplement longer-wavelength data from planned international dark energy missions (Euclid, WFIRST) as well as from the ground-based Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Combining the largest focal plane ever own in space, with an innovative optical design that delivers HST-quality images over a eld two orders of magnitude larger than Hubble Space Telescope (HST), CASTOR would image about 1/8th of the sky to a (u-band) depth ~1 magnitude fainter than will be possible with LSST even after a decade of operations. No planned or proposed astronomical facility would exceed CASTOR in its potential for discovery at these wavelengths.