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This paper discusses the potential of active structures technology for future IR and sub-mm telescopes deployed in space. Two of the areas of astronomy that appear poised for major breakthroughs in the future are space-deployed high-resolution visible and ultraviolet interferometry, and infrared (IR) and submillimeter astronomy. There is a need for a space IR telescope with an aperture of at least 8 meters, which operates at about 50 K or lower, with a surface figure precision better than 0.5 microns. If such a telescope is to be used to study dim objects near bright ones (for example in searching for extra-solar planets) a surface figure precision of lambda/1000 or better may be required at intermediate spatial scales. It does not seem likely that such a telescope could be made with lightweight components without substantial use of active and adaptive structures technology.