During 2014 and 2015, NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission proceeded successfully through Phase C, Design and Development. An X-ray (0.2-12 keV) astrophysics payload destined for the International Space Station, NICER is manifested for launch in early 2017 on the Commercial Resupply Services SpaceX-11 flight. Its scientific objectives are to investigate the internal structure, dynamics, and energetics of neutron stars, the densest objects in the universe. During Phase C, flight components including optics, detectors, the optical bench, pointing actuators, electronics, and others were subjected to environmental testing and integrated to form the flight payload. A custom-built facility was used to co-align and integrate the X-ray "concentrator" optics and silicon-drift detectors. Ground calibration provided robust performance measures of the optical (at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) and detector (at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) subsystems, while comprehensive functional tests prior to payload-level environmental testing met all instrument performance requirements. We describe here the implementation of NICER's major subsystems, summarize their performance and calibration, and outline the component-level testing that was successfully applied.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Deformable Mirrors (DMs) enable precise wavefront control for optical systems. This technology can be used to meet the extreme wavefront control requirements for high contrast imaging of exoplanets with coronagraph instruments. MEMS DM technology is being demonstrated and developed in preparation for future exoplanet high contrast imaging space telescopes, including the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission which supported the development of a 2040 actuator MEMS DM. In this paper, we discuss ground testing results and several projects which demonstrate the operation of MEMS DMs in the space environment. The missions include the Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Recoverable Experiment (PICTURE) sounding rocket (launched 2011), the Planet Imaging Coronagraphic Technology Using a Reconfigurable Experimental Base (PICTURE-B) sounding rocket (launched 2015), the Planetary Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Recoverable Experiment - Coronagraph (PICTURE-C) high altitude balloon (expected launch 2019), the High Contrast Imaging Balloon System (HiCIBaS) high altitude balloon (launched 2018), and the Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) CubeSat mission (expected launch late 2019). We summarize results from the previously flown missions and objectives for the missions that are next on the pad. PICTURE had technical difficulties with the sounding rocket telemetry system. PICTURE-B demonstrated functionality at >100 km altitude after the payload experienced 12-g RMS (Vehicle Level 2) test and sounding rocket launch loads. The PICTURE-C balloon aims to demonstrate 10 - 7 contrast using a vector vortex coronagraph, image plane wavefront sensor, and a 952 actuator MEMS DM. The HiClBaS flight experienced a DM cabling issue, but the 37-segment hexagonal piston-tip-tilt DM is operational post-flight. The DeMi mission aims to demonstrate wavefront control to a precision of less than 100 nm RMS in space with a 140 actuator MEMS DM.

An instrument called Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) will be placed on-board the International Space Station in 2017. It is designed to detect soft X-ray emission from compact sources and to provide both spectral and high resolution timing information about the incoming flux. The focal plane is populated with 56 customized Silicon Drift Detectors. The paper describes the detector system architecture, the electronics and presents the results of the laboratory testing of both flight and engineering units, as well as some of the calibration results obtained with synchrotron radiation in the laboratory of PTB at BESSY II.

We describe an optical design and possible implementation of a broadband soft x-ray polarimeter. Our arrangement of gratings is designed optimally for the purpose of polarimetry with broadband focusing optics by matching the dispersion of the spectrometer channels to laterally graded multilayers (LGMLs). The system can achieve polarization modulation factors over 90%. We implement this design using a single optical system by dividing the entrance aperture into six sectors; high efficiency, blazed gratings from opposite sectors are oriented to disperse to a common LGML forming three channels covering the wavelength range from 35 to 75 Å (165 to 350 eV). The grating dispersions and LGML position angles for each channel are 120 deg to each other. CCD detectors then measure the intensities of the dispersed spectra after reflection and polarizing by the LGMLs, giving the three Stokes parameters needed to determine a source's linear polarization fraction and orientation. The design can be extended to higher energies as LGMLs are developed further. We describe examples of the potential scientific return from instruments based on this design.

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The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) is a 6U CubeSat that will characterize the on-orbit performance of a Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM) with both an image plane wavefront sensor and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS). Coronagraphs on future space telescopes will require precise wavefront control to detect and characterize Earth-like exoplanets. High-actuator count MEMS deformable mirrors can provide wavefront control with low size, weight, and power. The DeMi payload will characterize the on-orbit performance of a 140 actuator MEMS Deformable Mirror (DM) with 5.5 µm maximum stroke, with a goal of measuring individual actuator wavefront displacement contributions to a precision of 12 nm. The payload will be able to measure low order aberrations to λ/10 accuracy and λ/50 precision, and will correct static and dynamic wavefront phase errors to less than 100 nm RMS. We present an overview of the payload design, the assembly, integration, and test process, and report on the development and validation of an optical diffraction model of the payload. Launch is planned for late 2019.

Coronagraphs on future space telescopes will require precise wavefront correction to detect Earth-like exoplanets near their host stars. High-actuator count microelectromechanical system (MEMS) deformable mirrors provide wavefront control with low size, weight, and power. The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) payload will demonstrate a 140 actuator MEMS Deformable Mirror (DM) with 5.5 µm maximum stroke. We present the flight optomechanical design, lab tests of the flight wavefront sensor and wavefront reconstructor, and simulations of closed-loop control of wavefront aberrations. We also present the compact flight DM controller, capable of driving up to 192 actuator channels at 0-250V with 14-bit resolution. Two embedded Raspberry Pi 3 compute modules are used for task management and wavefront reconstruction. The spacecraft is a 6U CubeSat (30 cm x 20 cm x 10 cm) and launch is planned for 2019.

The Kepler mission highlighted that precision radial velocity (PRV) follow-up is a real bottleneck in supporting transiting exoplanet surveys. The limited availability of PRV instruments, and the desire to break the "1 m/s" precision barrier, prompted the formation of a NASA-NSF collaboration 'NN-EXPLORE' to call for proposals designing a new Extreme Precision Doppler Spectrograph (EPDS). By securing a significant fraction of telescope time on the 3.5m WIYN at Kitt Peak, and aiming for unprecedented long-term precision, the EPDS instrument will provide a unique tool for U.S. astronomers in characterizing exoplanet candidates identified by TESS. One of the two funded instrument concept studies is led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in consortium with Lincoln Laboratories, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Carnegie Observatories. This paper describes the instrument concept WISDOM (WIYN Spectrograph for DOppler Monitoring) prepared by this team.WISDOM is a fiber fed, environmentally controlled, high resolution (R=110k), asymmetric white-pupil echelle spectrograph, covering a wide 380-1300nm wavelength region. Its R4 and R6 echelle gratings provide the main dispersion, symmetrically mounted on either side of a vertically aligned, vacuum-enclosed carbon fiber optical bench. Each grating feeds two cameras and thus the resulting wavelength range per camera is narrow enough that the VPHG cross-dispersers and employed anti-reflection coatings are highly efficient. The instrument operates near room temperature, and so thermal background for the near-infrared arm is mitigated by thermal blocking filters and a short (1.7µm) cutoff HgCdTe detector. To achieve high resolution while maintaining small overall instrument size (100/125mm beam diameter), imposed by the limited available space within the observatory building, we chose to slice the telescope pupil 6 ways before coupling light into fibers. An atmospheric dispersion corrector and fast tip-tilt system assures maximal light gathering within the 1.2″ entrance aperture. The six octagonal fibers corresponding to each slice of the pupil employ ball-lens double scramblers to stabilize the near-and far-fields. Three apiece are coupled into each of two rectangular fibers, to mitigate modal nose and present a rectilinear illumination pattern at the spectrograph's slit plane. Wavelength solutions are derived from ThAr lamps and an extremely wide coverage dual-channel laser frequency comb. Data is reduced on the fly for evaluation by a custom pipeline, while daily archives and extended scope data reduction products are stored on NExScI servers, also managing archives and access privileges for GTO and GO programs.Note: individual papers, submitted along this main paper, describe the details of subsystems such as the optical design (Barnes et al.,, the fiber link design (Fűrész et al.,, and the pupil slicer (Egan et al.,.