Technology gap assessment for a future large-aperture ultraviolet-optical-infrared space telescope

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Crooke, Julie A.; Feinberg, Lee; Quijada, Manuel A.; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David C.; Rioux, Norman; Shaklan, Stuart; Stahl, H. Philip; Stahle, C. M.; Thronson, H. A.

doi:10.1117/1.jatis.2.4.041209

Cited by 40 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…The roadmap technologies are consistent with the more detailed description developed by Bolcar et al 43 for the ATLAST concept described in Sec. 2: precision deployment and wavefront control, mirror coatings, detector systems, andvery critically-high-performance starlight suppression.…”

Section: The Nasa Astrophysics Roadmap: Vision For the Next Three Decsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…Our ATLAST study was concluded in late 2015 with study results passed on to the current Large UV/Optical/ IR (LUVOIR) Surveyor assessment. Our ATLAST design reference mission is reported on in additional detail elsewhere by Bolcar et al 43 and Rioux et al 45 The remainder of this paper gives an overview of the design, including the strategy pursued in its development.…”

Section: Association Of Universities For Research Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Path to a UV/optical/IR flagship: review of ATLAST and its predecessors

Thronson

Bolcar

Clampin

et al. 2016

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst

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Section: The Nasa Astrophysics Roadmap: Vision For the Next Three Decsupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Association Of Universities For Research Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Path to a UV/optical/IR flagship: review of ATLAST and its predecessors

Thronson

Bolcar

Clampin

et al. 2016

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst

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“…The two main areas of technology development for the LUVOIR concept are 1) the ultra-stable optomechanical structure required to form a large primary mirror out of segments, with the required picometer-class wavefront error stability, and 2) segmented-aperture coronagraphy at the 10 −10 contrast level. 57 For the former challenge, the team is building on experience gained from the ATLAST 9 m telescope study 38 which had a similar architecture to designs under consideration for LUVOIR. The LUVOIR team is performing model-based analysis to show that the wavefront error requirement can be met, and to broadly flow requirements into different subsystems with multiple levels of open and closed-loop control.…”

Section: Luvoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space technology for directly imaging and characterizing exo-Earths

Crill

Siegler

2017

UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts VIII

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The detection of Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone of their stars, and their spectroscopic characterization in a search for biosignatures, requires starlight suppression that exceeds the current best ground-based performance by orders of magnitude. The required planet/star brightness ratio of order 10 −10 at visible wavelengths can be obtained by blocking stellar photons with an occulter, either externally (a starshade) or internally (a coronagraph) to the telescope system, and managing diffracted starlight, so as to directly image the exoplanet in reflected starlight. Coronagraph instruments require advancement in telescope aperture (either monolithic or segmented), aperture obscurations (obscured by secondary mirror and its support struts), and wavefront error sensitivity (e.g. line-of-sight jitter, telescope vibration, polarization). The starshade, which has never been used in a science application, benefits a mission by being decoupled from the telescope, allowing a loosening of telescope stability requirements. In doing so, it transfers the difficult technology from the telescope system to a large deployable structure (tens of meters to greater than 100 m in diameter) that must be positioned precisely at a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers from the telescope. We describe in this paper a roadmap to achieving the technological capability to search for biosignatures on an Earth-like exoplanet from a future space telescope. Two of these studies, HabEx and LUVOIR, include the direct imaging of Earth-sized habitable exoplanets as a central science theme.WFIRST, scheduled to launch in the mid-2020's, will provide an essential technology demonstration with a coronagraph instrument (CGI) that uses a deformable mirror to correct wavefront aberrations, the first to do so in space. Still in Phase A, the WFIRST mission has recently matured its coronagraph to TRL 5. The CGI is designed to achieve contrast sensitivities between 10 −8 and 10 −9 and to be the first instrument to directly image mature gas and ice giants like our own Jupiter and Neptune. This will be an important step across the gap from today's capability to the needs of a future mission (See Fig. 1).Additionally, at this time, the WFIRST project is studying the benefits and impacts of being compatible with a potential future starshade mission. While NASA does not yet have plans to initiate a starshade flight project, NASA is studying the scientific potential, cost, and risks of starshade-based observations with WFIRST. The recommendations of the 2020 Decadal Survey will guide NASA's decision on whether to initiate a starshade project.The Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx), and Large Ultraviolet-Optical-Infrared Surveyor (LU-VOIR) mission concepts share Earth-like exoplanet characterization as a central science theme. These missions are being designed around the direct imaging of exoplanets and the telescope/spacecraft systems are being designed in concert with a coronagraph and/or starshade. These two mission concepts encapsulate...

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“…1 shows the detector requirements that were used for NASA's recently completed ATLAST study. 7 We adopt these as the basis for further discussion. We are aware of additional desirable characteristics.…”

Section: Strawman Detector Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For other science programs, a general purpose LUVOIR would benefit from better detectors across its full 90 nm − 2.5 µm "stretch" wavelength range, including the UV. We refer the interested reader to Bolcar et al,7 for a discussion of some of these other detector needs 4. These longer wavelength lines would present other challenges, including reduced angular resolution (for a fixed aperture) and potentially increased thermal background.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detectors and cooling technology for direct spectroscopic biosignature characterization

Rauscher

Canavan

Moseley

et al. 2016

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst

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Abstract. Direct spectroscopic biosignature characterization (hereafter "biosignature characterization") will be a major focus for future space observatories equipped with coronagraphs or starshades. Our aim in this article is to provide an introduction to potential detector and cooling technologies for biosignature characterization. We begin by reviewing the needs. These include nearly noiseless photon detection at flux levels as low as <0.001 photons s −1 pixel −1 in the visible and near-infrared. We then discuss potential areas for further testing and/or development to meet these needs using noncryogenic detectors (electron multiplying charge coupled devices, HgCdTe array, HgCdTe APD array), and cryogenic single-photon detectors (microwave kinetic inductance device arrays and transition-edge sensor microcalorimeter arrays). Noncryogenic detectors are compatible with the passive cooling that is strongly preferred by coronagraphic missions but would add nonnegligible noise. Cryogenic detectors would require active cooling, but in return, deliver nearly quantum-limited performance. Based on the flight dynamics of past NASA missions, we discuss reasonable vibration expectations for a large UV-Optical-IR space telescope (LUVOIR) and preliminary cooling concepts that could potentially fit into a vibration budget without being the largest element. We believe that a cooler that meets the stringent vibration needs of a LUVOIR is also likely to meet those of a starshade-based Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Technology gap assessment for a future large-aperture ultraviolet-optical-infrared space telescope

Cited by 40 publications

References 34 publications

Path to a UV/optical/IR flagship: review of ATLAST and its predecessors

Path to a UV/optical/IR flagship: review of ATLAST and its predecessors

Space technology for directly imaging and characterizing exo-Earths

Detectors and cooling technology for direct spectroscopic biosignature characterization

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