Flight-Like Ground Demonstrations of Precision Maneuvers for Spacecraft Formations—Part I

Scharf, Daniel P.; Keim, Jason A.; Hadaegh, Fred Y.

doi:10.1109/jsyst.2010.2042532

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…43 These require the additional mass of independent spacecraft systems for propulsion, communications, and power, but can scale to larger telescope configurations without the increase in mass required for connecting and maintaining alignment of the individual components. Guidance and control algorithms needed for autonomous and precise spacecraft formation flight have been demonstrated, including ground-based demonstrations in JPL's Formation Control Testbed, 44,45 through applications such as starshade missions. 46 On-orbit demonstrations of autonomous formation flight have also been successfully achieved with the Prisma mission, 47 the TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM-X) mission, 48 with CubeSats, 49 within the confines of the ISS on the Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) testbed, 50 and achieving science with the upcoming external coronagraph Proba-3 mission.…”

Section: Formation Flying Of Secondary Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Architecture for in-space robotic assembly of a modular space telescope

Lee

Backes

Burdick

et al. 2016

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst

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Abstract. An architecture and conceptual design for a robotically assembled, modular space telescope (RAMST) that enables extremely large space telescopes to be conceived is presented. The distinguishing features of the RAMST architecture compared with prior concepts include the use of a modular deployable structure, a general-purpose robot, and advanced metrology, with the option of formation flying. To demonstrate the feasibility of the robotic assembly concept, we present a reference design using the RAMST architecture for a formation flying 100-m telescope that is assembled in Earth orbit and operated at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2.

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Section: Formation Flying Of Secondary Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Architecture for in-space robotic assembly of a modular space telescope

Lee

Backes

Burdick

et al. 2016

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst

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“…That work, which achieved the goals of adaptive nulling at the 10 −5 level over a 30% bandwidth and of higher mode suppression in single mode fibers of 1.5 × 10 4 , together with the starlight suppression of more than seven orders of magnitude and the planet detections reported here, met all the performance goals set for the technology program. (In addition, a formation flying testbed (Scharf et al 2010(Scharf et al , 2004, met goals for spacecraft control that would be needed for the free-flying interferometer.) These performances, taken together, reach to within a factor of ten of the performance needed for flight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of exoplanet detection using an infrared telescope array

Martin¹,

Booth

2010

A&A

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Context. Technology is being developed for the characterization and detection of small, Earth-size exoplanets by nulling interferometry in the mid-infrared waveband. While high-performance nulling experiments have shown the possibility of using the technique, to achieve these goals, nulling has to be done on multiple beams, with high stability over periods of hours. To address the issues of the perceived complexity and difficulty of the method, a testbed was developed for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) project which would demonstrate four beam nulling and faint exoplanet signal extraction at levels traceable to flight requirements. Containing star and planet sources, the testbed would demonstrate the principal functional processes of the TPF-I beam-combiner by generating four input beams of star and planet light, and recovering the planet signature at the output. Aims. Here we report on experiments designed with traceability to a flight system, showing faint exoplanet signal detection in the presence of strong starlight. The experiments were designed to show nulling at the flight level of ≈10 −5 , starlight suppression of 10 −7 or better, and detection of an exoplanet at a contrast of 10 −6 compared to the star. This performance level meets the flight requirements for the parts of the detection process that can be demonstrated using a monochromatic source. To achieve these results, the testbed would have to operate stably for several hours, showing control of disturbances at levels equivalent to the flight requirements. Methods. A test process was designed which would show that the necessary performance could be achieved. To show reproducibility, the tests were run on three separate occasions, separated by several days. The tests were divided into three main parts which would show first, starlight suppression, second, a realistic faint exoplanet signal production, and finally, exoplanet signal detection in the presence of the starlight. Results. A number of data sets were acquired showing the achievement of the required performance. The data reported here show nulling at levels between about 5.5 and 8.5 × 10 −6 , starlight suppression between 8.4 × 10 −9 and 1.4 × 10 −8 , and detection of planet signals with contrast to the star between 3.8 × 10 −7 and 4.4 × 10 −7 . The signal to noise ratios for the detections were between 14.0 and 26.9. These data met all the criteria of the demonstration, showing reproducible stable performance over several hours of operation. Conclusions. These data show the successful execution, at flight-like performance levels, of almost the whole exoplanet detection process using a four beam, nulling beam-combiner.

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“…In 2007 the Formation Control Testbed demonstrated its milestone for precision maneuvers using two robots, showing autonomous initialization, maneuvering, and operation in a collision free manner [8]. The key maneuver that was demonstrated was representative of TPF-I science observations.…”

Section: -P8mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4. Milestone #2: a demonstration of precision formation maneuvers in a ground-based robotic testbed, with performance traceability to flight [8]. 5.…”

Section: Introduction and Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%