Preliminary design of SALTO, the Belgian adaptive optics demonstrator

SALTO is a Belgian project aiming to build a complete 1 m telescope demonstrator including a single-conjugated adaptive optics (AO) system together with a Rayleigh laser guide star system. The underlying objective of SALTO consists in developing the Belgian expertise regarding AO systems for medium size telescopes (i.e. diameter from 1 to 4m), for application in astronomy, optical communication or detection of low-Earth orbit objects. The project approach is to base the design on COTS components, in order to reduce complexity, and to favor both robustness and automation of the system over performance. The SALTO demonstrator will be located at Redu Space Services in the Belgian countryside. Therefore the major challenge of the project will be to deal with poor seeing, far worst than astronomical standards, while preserving robust and reasonable correction in the red-visible and near-infrared wavelength range. Here, we present our system baseline, the expected performance, and the preliminary design of the AO system. We conclude with the current prospects for the project

Pluralising political forests: unpacking “the State” by tracing Virunga's charcoal chain

Peering through the lens of illegal charcoal production in the forested areas of Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this paper makes a case for disaggregating the notion of “the state” to better capture “the political” in contemporary political forests. It argues that to identify the fluctuating importance of different dimensions of “stateness”, it is crucial to acknowledge the polymorphous socio‐spatial relations that produce political forests. Thus, we draw on the notions of territory, place, scale and network (TPSN) to examine how “stateness” in Virunga has transformed under the particularisation, transnationalisation, and regionalisation of authority. This approach allows us to show how these processes do not only stem from neoliberalisation, but are also driven by, inter alia, regional warfare and non‐state militarisation. The resulting complexity of the regulatory landscape turns Virunga into a space marked by a plurality of partly overlapping and partly conflicting political forests