PICTURE: a sounding rocket experiment for direct imaging of an extrasolar planetary environment

Mendillo, Christopher B.; Hicks, Brian; Cook, Timothy A.; Bifano, Thomas G.; Lane, Benjamin F.; Levine, B. M.; Rabin, D. M.; Rao, Shanti; Samuele, Rocco; Schmidtlin, Edouard; Shao, Michael; Wallace, J. Kent; Chakrabarti, Supriya

doi:10.1117/12.926408

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Since this sensor design is specific to the VVC, it is incompatible with the visible nulling coronagraph (VNC) planned for use in flight 1. 16 Either the Shack-Hartmann or the curvature sensor could easily be adapted to take the place of the tip-tilt sensor in that design, which also sits in a secondary blue channel. Both provide enough performance to reach the nuller limit of 10´4.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The low-order wavefront sensor for the PICTURE-C mission

et al. 2015

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The PICTURE-C mission will fly a 60 cm off-axis unobscured telescope and two high-contrast coronagraphs in successive high-altitude balloon flights with the goal of directly imaging and spectrally characterizing visible scattered light from exozodiacal dust in the interior 1-10 AU of nearby exoplanetary systems. The first flight in 2017 will use a 10´4 visible nulling coronagraph (previously flown on the PICTURE sounding rocket) and the second flight in 2019 will use a 10´7 vector vortex coronagraph. A low-order wavefront corrector (LOWC) will be used in both flights to remove time-varying aberrations from the coronagraph wavefront. The LOWC actuator is a 76-channel high-stroke deformable mirror packaged on top of a tip-tilt stage. This paper will detail the selection of a complementary high-speed, low-order wavefront sensor (LOWFS) for the mission. The relative performance and feasibility of several LOWFS designs will be compared including the Shack-Hartmann, Lyot LOWFS, and the curvature sensor. To test the different sensors, a model of the time-varying wavefront is constructed using measured pointing data and inertial dynamics models to simulate optical alignment perturbations and surface deformation in the balloon environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The low-order wavefront sensor for the PICTURE-C mission

et al. 2015

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“…23 sounding rocket, which achieved an accuracy of 0.005 arcsec. 26 The pointing controller is a nested set of integral control laws. The tip/tilt signal from the LOWFS goes first to the FSM, using an integrator term and an AO control matrix for the low-order Zernike terms.…”

Section: Pointing Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Debris Disk Explorer: a balloon-borne coronagraph for observing debris disks

et al. 2013

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The Debris Disk Explorer (DDX) is a proposed balloon-borne investigation of debris disks around nearby stars. Debris disks are analogs of the Asteroid Belt (mainly rocky) and Kuiper Belt (mainly icy) in our Solar System. DDX will measure the size, shape, brightness, and color of tens of disks. These measurements will enable us to place the Solar System in context. By imaging debris disks around nearby stars, DDX will reveal the presence of perturbing planets via their influence on disk structure, and explore the physics and history of debris disks by characterizing the size and composition of disk dust.The DDX instrument is a 0.75-m diameter off-axis telescope and a coronagraph carried by a stratospheric balloon. DDX will take high-resolution, multi-wavelength images of the debris disks around tens of nearby stars. Two flights are planned; an overnight test flight within the United States followed by a month-long science flight launched from New Zealand. The long flight will fully explore the set of known debris disks accessible only to DDX. It will achieve a raw contrast of 10 −7 , with a processed contrast of 10 −8 . A technology benefit of DDX is that operation in the near-space environment will raise the Technology Readiness Level of internal coronagraphs, deformable mirrors, and wavefront sensing and control, all potentially needed for a future space-based telescope for high-contrast exoplanet imaging.

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“…11 Research is, however, still active with high-altitude experiments such as Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry, a double-Fourier-Michelson interferometer placed on high-altitude scientific balloon which flown in 2017, 12 or Planetary Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment, a sounding rocket with a visible nulling coronagraph which flown in 2015. 13,14 With the results from these missions, the current technology, future prospects, 10 and the results from Kepler, an interferometric space-based mission can now be re-evaluated. The Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) mission project is part of this re-evaluation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exoplanet detection yield of a space-based Bracewell interferometer from small to medium satellites

Dandumont

Defrère

Kammerer

et al. 2020

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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Space-based nulling interferometry is one of the most promising solutions to spectrally characterize the atmosphere of rocky exoplanets in the mid-infrared (3 to 20 μm). It provides both high angular resolution and starlight mitigation. This observing capability depends on several technologies. A CubeSat (up to 20 kg) or a medium satellite (up to a few hundreds of kg), using a Bracewell architecture on a single spacecraft could be an adequate technological precursor to a larger, flagship mission. Beyond technical challenges, the scientific return of such a small-scale mission needs to be assessed. We explore the exoplanet science cases for various missions (several satellite configurations and sizes). Based on physical parameters (diameter and wavelength) and thanks to a state-of-the-art planet population synthesis tool, the performance and the possible exoplanet detection yield of these configurations are presented. Without considering platform stability constraints, a CubeSat (baseline of b ≃ 1 m and pupils diameter of D ≃ 0.1 m) could detect ≃7 Jovian exoplanets, a small satellite (b ≃ 5 m∕D ≃ 0.25 m) ≃120 exoplanets, whereas a medium satellite (b ≃ 12.5 m∕D ≃ 0.5 m) could detect ∼250 exoplanets including 51 rocky planets within 20 pc. To complete our study, an analysis of the platform stability constraints (tip/tilt and optical path difference) is performed. Exoplanet studies impose very stringent requirements on both tip/tilt and OPD control.

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PICTURE: a sounding rocket experiment for direct imaging of an extrasolar planetary environment

Cited by 20 publications

References 21 publications

The low-order wavefront sensor for the PICTURE-C mission

The low-order wavefront sensor for the PICTURE-C mission

The Debris Disk Explorer: a balloon-borne coronagraph for observing debris disks

Exoplanet detection yield of a space-based Bracewell interferometer from small to medium satellites

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