This paper describes the design development and prototyping for the LFAST telescopes (Large Fiber Array Spectroscopic Telescope). LFAST is an innovative concept in ground-based telescopes, to provide a large collecting area for spectroscopy at relatively low cost, by duplicating large numbers of inexpensive, small (0.76m) aperture “unit” telescopes.

This work includes: the design development and testing of: a low-cost 18-point mirror support for the 0.76m thin meniscus mirrors; a compact, lightweight steel structure to hold twenty “unit” telescope in a single 20x telescope mount; the telescope software and control development; the ALT-AZ drive system consisting of off-the-shelf slew-bearing worm servo drives and finally, several design innovations to address the particularly challenging requirement to operate the 20x telescope in open air, without an enclosure.

We will report on progress and present results from the design development and analysis,as well as laboratory and real-world testing of a first-generation 1x Telescope and a prototype LFAST 20x Telescope.