Analytical model for starshade formation flying with applications to exoplanet direct imaging observation scheduling

Soto, Gabriel; Savransky, Dmitry; Morgan, Rhonda

doi:10.1117/1.jatis.7.2.021209

Cited by 6 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…16 Validation of the EXOSIMS code was performed in prior work. 30 EXOSIMS continues to improve the fidelity of starshade propulsion modeling, [31][32][33] integration time optimization, 34 and schedulers for various architectures and observing scenarios. 1,35 EXOSIMS is described in more detail in Sec.…”

Section: Approaches To Exoplanet Imaging Mission Yield Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faster Exo-Earth yield for HabEx and LUVOIR via extreme precision radial velocity prior knowledge

Morgan

Savransky

Turmon

et al. 2021

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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The HabEx and LUVOIR mission concepts reported science yields for mission scenarios in which the instruments must search for potentially habitable planets, determine their orbits, and, if worthwhile, invest the integration time for a spectral characterization. We evaluate the impact of prior knowledge of planet existence and orbital parameters on yield for four mission concept architectures: HabEx 4m telescope with hybrid starshade and coronagraph, HabEx 4m telescope with starshade only, HabEx 4m telescope with coronagraph only, and LUVOIR B 8m telescope with coronagraph only. We use perfect prior knowledge to establish an upper bound on yield and use partial prior knowledge from a potential future extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) instrument with 3 cm∕s sensitivity. We detail a modeling framework that performs dynamically responsive observation scheduling with realistic mission constraints. We evaluate exo-Earth yields against three metrics of spectral characterization for the four mission architectures and three levels of prior knowledge (none, partial, and perfect). The EPRV provided prior knowledge increases yields by ∼30% and accelerates by a factor of 3 to 6 the time to achieve half of the yield of the mission. Prior knowledge makes all the mission architectures more nimble and powerful, and most especially starshade-based architectures. With prior knowledge, a small telescope with a starshade can achieve comparable yield to a larger telescope with a coronagraph.

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Section: Approaches To Exoplanet Imaging Mission Yield Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faster Exo-Earth yield for HabEx and LUVOIR via extreme precision radial velocity prior knowledge

Morgan

Savransky

Turmon

et al. 2021

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…1 and then compare their analytical strategy under ideal conditions against numerical results from Ref. 3. This serves to validate the use of the inexpensive analytical model for stationkeeping.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Analytical computation is described above, while the numerical computation is carried out with only gravitational effects averaging the delta-v for burns taking place over a 6-h period as in Ref. 3. The average delta-v is required here since the differential lateral acceleration is only nearly constant.…”

Section: Analytical Model Of Stationkeeping Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimal differential lateral acceleration configurations for starshade stationkeeping in exoplanet direct imaging

Kulik

Soto

Savransky

2022

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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Exoplanet imaging missions utilizing an external occulter (starshade) for starlight suppression require precise alignment between the telescope and starshade, necessitating maintenance of the starshade orbit during observations. Differential lateral acceleration between the two spacecraft serves as a proxy for fuel use and number of required thruster firings, which may interrupt the observation. Comparison against results from high fidelity simulations of stationkeeping validates the use of this easy-to-compute proxy. Among starshade positions constrained to the surface of a sphere centered about the telescope, minima of differential lateral acceleration lie on a great circle and its corresponding poles. We present a closed expression for telescope to star vectors requiring minimal stationkeeping for observation from a telescope at an arbitrary position. This proxy metric along with analytical knowledge of optimal observations facilitates computationally efficient design of exoplanet imaging missions employing a starshade.

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“…Using differential lateral acceleration between the two spacecraft as a proxy for fuel use and number of required interruptions to the observation, we analyze the costs and timing metrics associated with maintaining the starshade in a nominal position, within some tolerance, to block out light from the given star. Our approach is in the same vein as previous analyses from [1][2][3]. We model the use of impulsive burns to maintain the starshade within a one meter lateral tolerance of the line of sight between telescope and target star [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This strategy for deadbanding assumes constant differential acceleration between telescope and starshade. The authors of [3] further explored this strategy in a variety of scenarios, analyzing a wider variety of pertinent stationkeeping metrics. Both papers numerically solved ODEs with event driven application of the impulses to find stationkeeping metrics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimal Differential Lateral Acceleration Configurations for Starshade Stationkeeping in Exoplanet Direct Imaging

Kulik¹,

Soto²,

Savransky³

2021

Preprint

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Analytical model for starshade formation flying with applications to exoplanet direct imaging observation scheduling

Cited by 6 publications

References 24 publications

Faster Exo-Earth yield for HabEx and LUVOIR via extreme precision radial velocity prior knowledge

Faster Exo-Earth yield for HabEx and LUVOIR via extreme precision radial velocity prior knowledge

Minimal differential lateral acceleration configurations for starshade stationkeeping in exoplanet direct imaging

Minimal Differential Lateral Acceleration Configurations for Starshade Stationkeeping in Exoplanet Direct Imaging

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