The Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph: technology and mission design studies

Ford, Virginia G.

doi:10.1117/12.551539

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The TPF Coronagraph designed to meet the minimum mission goals is presented, along with analysis and performance predictions. Details of the TPF mission, modeling tools and error analysis are described in detail in companion papers ( [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and performance of the Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph

et al. 2004

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Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph, one of two potential architectures, is described. The telescope is designed to make a visible wavelength survey of the habitable zones of at least thirty stars in search of earth-like planets. The preliminary system requirements, optical parameters, mechanical and thermal design, operations scenario and predicted performance is presented. The 6-meter aperture telescope has a monolithic primary mirror, which along with the secondary tower, are being designed to meet the stringent optical tolerances of the planet-finding mission. Performance predictions include dynamic and thermal finite element analysis of the telescope optics and structure, which are used to make predictions of the optical performance of the system

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and performance of the Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph

et al. 2004

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“…The second mission will be an infra-red formation flying interferometer, as a joint program with ESA for a launch later in the next decade, whose goal will be to obtain confirming data and extend the search to hundreds of stars out to 25 pc. Details of the science goals and design descriptions for each of the TPF concepts are described in detail in companion papers ( [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated modeling approach for the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission

et al. 2004

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Because of the complexity of the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) design concepts, the project will rely heavily on the use of engineering and science simulations to predict on-orbit performance. Furthermore, current understanding of these missions indicates that the 3m to 8m class optical systems need to be as stable as picometers in wavefront and sub-milli arcsec in pointing. These extremely small requirements impose on the models a level of predictive accuracy heretofore never achieved, especially in the area of microgravity effects, material property accuracy, thermal solution convergence, and all other second order modeling effects typically ignored. New modeling tools and analysis paradigms are developed which emphasize computational accuracy and fully integrated analytical simulations. The process is demonstrated on sample problems using the TPF Coronagraph design concept. The TPF project is also planning a suite of testbeds through which various aspects of the models and simulations will be verified.

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“…Equation (1) suggests that when a vortex phase mask of topological charge m=2 is centered on the Airy disk, destructive interference will create a gigantic black hole in the conjugate plane. An aperture less than or equal to the size of the entrance pupil may be used to block the diffracted light, thereby creating a blind spot in the field of view.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The TPF coronagraph is required to provide at least ten orders of magnitude of starlight suppression at an inner working angle of 4l/D, where D is the diameter associated with the major axis of the primary mirror and l (nominally 550nm) is the operating wavelength [1]. Several uses of optical vortices have been proposed to tackle this optical challenge [2,3,4].…”

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confidence: 99%