A Future Submillimeter-Wave Space VLBI

Submillimeter-wave VLBI is a very attractive idea for future radio astronomy. We discuss a submillimeter space VLBI based on the simulation of (u, v) coverage. We assume observations using three terrestrial submillimeter telescopes and one telescope in a sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. The simulated array gives a well-filled (u, v) coverage for a specified source. However, the (u, v) coverage becomes much poorer if real-time VLBI data transfer from the satellite to the ground is needed even with a telemetry network with seven ground stations. Alternative methods for the VLBI data acquisition from the space telescope will be required for the proposed space VLBI.