Error budgeting and tolerancing of starshades for exoplanet detection

Shaklan, Stuart; Noecker, M. C.; Glassman, Tiffany; Lo, Amy; Dumont, Philip; Kasdin, N. Jeremy; Cady, Eric; Vanderbei, Robert J.; Lawson, Peter R.

doi:10.1117/12.857591

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…The multiple, independent models allow us to cross-check results and ensure that different simulations return consistent results, within the scope of common simplifications and assumptions. We have performed detailed comparisons between several of these models and found that results agree to within ~5% [11] , thereby verifying the performance of the individual modeling methods.…”

Section: History Of Optical Modeling and Testingmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Achieving this groundbreaking science requires an optical system capable of observing a planet with intensity 4×10 11 times less than that of its host star and separation of 0.065 arcseconds (") from the star [2] . The light from the star must be almost completely suppressed so that it doesn't overwhelm the light from the planet.…”

Section: Starshade Mission Architecture and Technology Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Achieving high-contrast ratios with a 60-cm starshade

et al. 2013

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The external starshade is a prospective method for the direct detection and spectral characterization of terrestrial planets around other stars, a key goal identified in ASTRO2010. Validation of the numerical simulations that are critical to this approach has been challenging at very small scales (~4 cm) in the lab. We have successfully fabricated 60 cm starshades and begun a series of ground test experiments with them. We measured contrast better than 1×10 -8 under challenging environmental conditions at outdoor test sites. Our experimental setup is designed to provide starshade to telescope separation and telescope aperture size that are scaled as closely as possible from the flight system. In this paper, we describe the test setup, the data acquisition, the reduction techniques, and a preliminary comparison of measured to modeled results.

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Section: History Of Optical Modeling and Testingmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Starshade Mission Architecture and Technology Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving high-contrast ratios with a 60-cm starshade

et al. 2013

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“…See the electronic edition of the PASP for a color version of this figure. for a rich program of general astrophysics and cosmology. The tradeoffs and scaling relations in starshade optical performance have been explored in several recent articles (see Kasdin et al 2010;Shaklan et al 2010;Glassman et al 2010Glassman et al , 2009); here, we describe the physical parameters of a starshade and telescope that would be necessary to achieve the NWO baseline capability.…”

Section: Defining the Nwo Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…For external occulters, we draw on the large body of work on the effects of occulter shape and positioning errors on the achieved contrast, as in Ref. 9.…”

Section: Optical System Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph science yield modeling with EXOSIMS

Savransky

Garrett

2015

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst

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Abstract. We present and discuss the design details of an extensible, modular, open-source software framework called EXOSIMS (Exoplanet Open-Source Imaging Mission Simulator), which creates end-to-end simulations of space-based exoplanet imaging missions. We motivate the development and baseline implementation of the component parts of this software with models of the wide-field infrared survey telescope-astrophysics focused telescope assets (WFIRST-AFTA) coronagraph and present initial results of mission simulations for various iterations of the WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph design. We present and discuss two sets of simulations. The first compares the science yield of completely different instruments in the form of early competing coronagraph designs for WFIRST-AFTA. The second set of simulations evaluates the effects of different operating assumptions, specifically the assumed postprocessing capabilities and telescope vibration levels. We discuss how these results can guide further instrument development and the expected evolution of science yields. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative CommonsAttribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requiresfull attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Error budgeting and tolerancing of starshades for exoplanet detection

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Achieving high-contrast ratios with a 60-cm starshade

Achieving high-contrast ratios with a 60-cm starshade

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

WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph science yield modeling with EXOSIMS

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