The Context for and Future of THz Technologies in Space Astrophysics

NASA’s current space astrophysics missions do not use THz technologies, but instead many are capitalizing on the developments of decades ago in visible and near-infrared detectors. This leaves opportunity in the far-infrared/THz regime (~30–300µm / 1–10THz) to make discoveries that build on the work of telescopes operating now or in the near future. In this overview, I would like to present how the last twenty years leading up to the great optical/near-infrared missions — the James Webb Space Telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory — have set up a landscape of immense discovery from the nearby universe to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, but have also left some important work yet to be done. It is in this future context that the THz technologies of today must rapidly advance to provide the tools astronomers will need in the decades to come.