Can Optical Interferometers Extend Beyond 1 Light Second in Length?

[smartalek86]

Is there a limit to optical space interferometry? I read this article
https://www.noao.edu/meetings/interferometry/workshop-files/Carpenter-Space-comp.pdf about future concepts(which i think is really good). I'm wondering, can optical interferometers have a length of more than 1 light second...could you place 3 say in the asteroid belt and have a 2 AU resolution

 

[mfb]

None of the proposed missions there was realized, and there is no space interferometry mission actively in preparation (unless you count LISA Pathfinder / LISA).

LISA was originally planned with 5 million km baseline, as NASA stopped contributing ESA scaled it down to 3 million km (10 light seconds), so you can do interferometry over these distances.

The solar wind at 1 AU is 19 orders of magnitude less dense than the atmosphere, 100 million km in space have the same area density as 100 nm of (sea level) air, so I wouldn't expect problems from seeing.

Very sparse interferometers tend to have significant side-lobes - you get a good resolution at the place you are looking at, but you also get light from elsewhere.