Creating optimal observing schedules for a starshade planet-finding mission

Glassman, Tiffany; Newhart, Lance; Voshell, Wesley; Lo, Amy; Barber, G.

doi:10.1109/aero.2011.5747419

Cited by 7 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Therefore, instead of interrupting the path and replanning each time we do a characterization observation (as we would in an operational scenario), each path is generated from start to finish with the characterizations included. This simplification was shown by Glassman et al (2011) to provide a close approximation to the results of the full real-time simulation. We ran the simulation for all nine combinations of η ⊕ (0.1, 0.5, or 1) and ε (1, 10, or 100) to show how the mission is affected by the various astrophysical scenarios.…”

Section: Mission Performance: Real-time Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the simulated results generated here, the paths can also be sorted by the number of planets detected or characterized, or by the telescope time used, or by the total ΔV consumed for retargeting (8000 m s À1 limit) and for station-keeping (300 m s À1 limit) in order to estimate the science return of the mission. Glassman et al (2011) found that the one path yielding the best science return (in terms of the number of planets detected and characterized) did not generally correspond to a path with high efficiency in terms of ΔV limits and telescope time used. However, they did find that there are many paths near the 90th-percentile science yield that also have very high ΔV efficiencies (∼10th percentile in terms of ΔV cost).…”

Section: Choosing the Best Science Pathmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The costs and constraints considered include the amount of ΔV , and hence fuel, needed to acquire each target (ΔV limit ¼ 8000 m s À1 for retargeting; Glassman et al 2011) and to maintain alignment during each observation (ΔV limit ¼ 300 m s À1 limit for station-keeping), the solar avoidance restrictions (limiting observations to between 45°and 105°from the Sun), and the mission lifetime (5 yr). In the cases considered here (as in Glassman et al 2011), the simulation was run for a 50 m effective-diameter starshade operating 80,000 km from the 4 m telescope. The current simulation does not include revisits, either to continue searching for planets around a star that was already searched or to further characterize a planet that was already detected.…”

Section: Mission Performance: Real-time Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Target scheduling simulations show that, on average, starshade target acquisition will take ∼11 days (Glassman et al 2011). These extended windows of primary science "downtime" allow opportunities for other astrophysical observations.…”

Section: The Starshadementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using the set of Hipparcos stars within 30 pc and their completeness values, imaging exposure times, and spectroscopy exposure times, Glassman et al (2011) have created a Monte Carlo simulation to find near-optimal observing schedules for starshade missions. This simulation balances the science priority of each observation against mission costs and mission constraints.…”

Section: Mission Performance: Real-time Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The Search for Habitable Worlds. 1. The Viability of a Starshade Mission

Turnbull¹,

Glassman²,

Roberge³

et al. 2012

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

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ABSTRACT. As part of NASA's mission to explore habitable planets orbiting nearby stars, this article explores the detection and characterization capabilities of a 4 m space telescope plus 50 m starshade located at the Earth-Sun L2 point, known as the New Worlds Observer (NWO). Our calculations include the true spectral types and distribution of stars on the sky, an iterative target selection protocol designed to maximize efficiency based on prior detections, and realistic mission constraints. We conduct simulated observing runs for a wide range in exozodiacal background levels (ε ¼ 1-100 times the local zodi brightness) and overall prevalence of Earth-like terrestrial planets (η ⊕ ¼ 0:1-1). We find that even without any return visits, the NWO baseline architecture (IWA ¼ 65 mas, limiting FPB ¼ 4 × 10 À11 ) can achieve a 95% probability of detecting and spectrally characterizing at least one habitable Earth-like planet and an expectation value of ∼3 planets found, within the mission lifetime and ΔV budgets, even in the worst-case scenario (η ⊕ ¼ 0:1 and ε ¼ 100 zodis for every target). This achievement requires about 1 yr of integration time spread over the 5 yr mission, leaving the remainder of the telescope time for UV-NIR general astrophysics. Cost and technical feasibility considerations point to a "sweet spot" in starshade design near a 50 m starshade effective diameter, with 12 or 16 petals, at a distance of 70,000-100,000 km from the telescope.

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Section: Mission Performance: Real-time Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Choosing the Best Science Pathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mission Performance: Real-time Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Starshadementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mission Performance: Real-time Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Search for Habitable Worlds. 1. The Viability of a Starshade Mission

Turnbull¹,

Glassman²,

Roberge³

et al. 2012

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

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Special Section on Starshades: Overview and a Dialogue

Arenberg

Harness

Jensen-Clem

2021

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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This special section is dedicated to starshades: science, engineering, technology, and programmatics. Our reasons for organizing this special section are several fold. First as a new technology and with research accomplished in many institutions, recent results are widely scattered in the literature. As such, we see great value in colocating many of the most recent results. This guest editorial summarizes the 19 contributed papers as the result of a special call for papers. Since this is a rapidly maturing technology, we wanted to colocate a primer with the most current work in the field. It is hoped that this primer will provide a tutorial to the starshade concept and pathway to the literature not in this section. In doing so, we hope to widen the starshade community in terms of engineering and scientific engagements. This tutorial takes the form of a dialogue, where frequently asked questions are answered.

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The Exo-S probe class starshade mission

et al. 2015

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Exo-S is a direct imaging space-based mission to discover and characterize exoplanets. With its modest size, Exo-S bridges the gap between census missions like Kepler and a future space-based flagship direct imaging exoplanet mission. With the ability to reach down to Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of nearly two dozen nearby stars, Exo-S is a powerful first step in the search for and identification of Earth-like planets. Compelling science can be returned at the same time as the technological and scientific framework is developed for a larger flagship mission. The Exo-S Science and Technology Definition Team studied two viable starshade-telescope missions for exoplanet direct imaging, targeted to the $1B cost guideline. The first Exo-S mission concept is a starshade and telescope system dedicated to each other for the sole purpose of direct imaging for exoplanets (The "Starshade Dedicated Mission"). The starshade and commercial, 1.1-m diameter telescope co-launch, sharing the same low-cost launch vehicle, conserving cost. The Dedicated mission orbits in a heliocentric, Earth leading, Earth-drift away orbit. The telescope has a conventional instrument package that includes the planet camera, a basic spectrometer, and a guide camera. The second Exo-S mission concept is a starshade that launches separately to rendezvous with an existing on-orbit space telescope (the "Starshade Rendezvous Mission"). The existing telescope adopted for the study is the WFIRST-AFTA (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope Astrophysics Focused Telescope Asset). The WFIRST-AFTA 2.4-m telescope is assumed to have previously launched to a Halo orbit about the Earth-Sun L2 point, away from the gravity gradient of Earth orbit which is unsuitable for formation flying of the starshade and telescope. The impact on WFIRST-AFTA for starshade readiness is minimized; the existing coronagraph instrument performs as the starshade science instrument, while formation guidance is handled by the existing coronagraph focal planes with minimal modification and an added transceiver.

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Creating optimal observing schedules for a starshade planet-finding mission

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

The Search for Habitable Worlds. 1. The Viability of a Starshade Mission

The Search for Habitable Worlds. 1. The Viability of a Starshade Mission

Special Section on Starshades: Overview and a Dialogue

The Exo-S probe class starshade mission

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