A Demonstration of Space Infrared Interferometer by Formation Flying of Micro-Satellites
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Technology Development for Future Sparse Aperture Telescopes and Interferometers in Space
A Technology Whitepaper submitted to the 2010 Decadal Survey Technology Development for Future Sparse Aperture Telescopes and Interferometers in Space 24 March 2009 NASA Centers: GSFC: Kenneth G. Carpenter, Keith Gendreau, Jesse Leitner, Richard Lyon, Eric Stoneking MSFC: H. Philip Stahl Industrial Partners: Aurora Flight Systems: Joe Parrish LMATC: Carolus J. Schrijver, Robert Woodruff NGST – Amy Lo, Chuck Lillie Seabrook Engineering: David Mozurkewich University/Astronomical Institute Partners: College de France: Antoine Labeyrie MIT: David Miller NOAO: Ken Mighell SAO: Margarita Karovska, James Phillips STScI: Ronald J. Allen UCO/Boulder: Webster Cash Abstract We describe the major technology development efforts that need to occur throughout the 2010 decade in order to enable a wide variety of sparse aperture and interferometric missions in the following decade. These missions are critical to achieving the next major revolution in astronomical observations by dramatically increasing the achievable angular resolution by more than 2 orders of magnitude, over wavelengths stretching from the x-ray and ultraviolet into the infrared and sub-mm. These observations can only be provided by long-baseline interferometers or sparse aperture telescopes in space, since the aperture diameters required are in excess of 500m - a regime in which monolithic or segmented designs are not and will not be feasible - and since they require observations at wavelengths not accessible from the ground. The technology developments needed for these missions are challenging, but eminently feasible with a reasonable investment over the next decade to enable flight in the 2025+ timeframe. That investment would enable tremendous gains in our understanding of the structure of the Universe and of its individual components in ways both anticipated and unimaginable today. -
Tiny ASTERIA Satellite Achieves a First for Cubesats 16 August 2018, by Lauren Hinkel and Mary Knapp
Tiny ASTERIA satellite achieves a first for CubeSats 16 August 2018, by Lauren Hinkel And Mary Knapp The ASTERIA project is a collaboration between MIT and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, funded through JPL's Phaeton Program. The project started in 2010 as an undergraduate class project in 16.83/12.43 (Space Systems Engineering), involving a technology demonstration of astrophysical measurements using a Cubesat, with a primary goal of training early-career engineers. The ASTERIA mission—of which Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences Sara Seager is the Principal Investigator—was designed to demonstrate key technologies, including very Members of the ASTERIA team prepare the petite stable pointing and thermal control for making satellite for its journey to space. Credit: NASA/JPL- extremely precise measurements of stellar Caltech brightness in a tiny satellite. Earlier this year, ASTERIA achieved pointing stability of 0.5 arcseconds and thermal stability of 0.01 degrees Celsius. These technologies are important for A miniature satellite called ASTERIA (Arcsecond precision photometry, i.e., the measurement of Space Telescope Enabling Research in stellar brightness over time. Astrophysics) has measured the transit of a previously-discovered super-Earth exoplanet, 55 Cancri e. This finding shows that miniature satellites, like ASTERIA, are capable of making of sensitive detections of exoplanets via the transit method. While observing 55 Cancri e, which is known to transit, ASTERIA measured a miniscule change in brightness, about 0.04 percent, when the super- Earth crossed in front of its star. This transit measurement is the first of its kind for CubeSats (the class of satellites to which ASTERIA belongs) which are about the size of a briefcase and hitch a ride to space as secondary payloads on rockets used for larger spacecraft. -
Exoplanet Community Report
JPL Publication 09‐3 Exoplanet Community Report Edited by: P. R. Lawson, W. A. Traub and S. C. Unwin National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California March 2009 The work described in this publication was performed at a number of organizations, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Publication was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Compiling and publication support was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United States Government, or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. © 2009. All rights reserved. The exoplanet community’s top priority is that a line of probeclass missions for exoplanets be established, leading to a flagship mission at the earliest opportunity. iii Contents 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................................1 1.2 EXOPLANET FORUM 2008: THE PROCESS OF CONSENSUS BEGINS.....................................................2 -
Spectral Analysis of Atmospheres by Nulling Interferometry
Molecules in the Atmospheres of Extrasolar Planets ASP Conference Series, Vol. 450 J-P. Beaulieu, S. Dieters, and G. Tinetti, eds. c 2011 Astronomical Society of the Pacific Spectral Analysis of Atmospheres by Nulling Interferometry M. Ollivier and S. Jacquinod Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale - Université de Paris-Sud 11 and CNRS (UMR 8617) Abstract. Nulling interferometry has often been considered as one of the most promising techniques to get spectra, in the thermal infrared spectral range, of exo- planet and particularly telluric ones. The required performance, in terms of nulling depth, spectral bandwidth and stability begins to be achievable in the laboratory. How- ever, concrete observatory projects have strong difficulties to emerge in space agencies programs, because of mission requirements complexity. In this paper, I present the per- formance various scientific objectives need and the state of the art of this technique, including mission aspects. I finally propose elements that could help defining a first space mission project. 1. Nulling Interferometry : Theoretical Aspects 1.1. Principle of Nulling Interferometry Nulling interferometry has been proposed in the late 70s as a possible technique to detect and spectroscopically characterize planets around nearby stars at wavelengths where diffraction prevents from the use of single aperture telescopes (Bracewell 1978). The principle of nulling interferometry in a 2-telescope configuration is described in figure 1 (left). The idea is to use two small telescopes, pointed in the direction of the star and to combine their beams. On the beam combiner the wavefronts from both star and planet create interferences. If we introduce a π phase-shift in one arm of the inter- ferometer, the stellar interference is destructive (the optical path difference is equal to zero). -
ASTERIA Data Guide
ASTERIA Data Users Guide (v2) Mary Knapp November 2019 1 Overview This document describes the formatting and idiosyncrasies of ASTERIA photometric data. ASTERIA is the Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research In Astrophysics. 2 Brief ASTERIA System Description ASTERIA is a 6U (10 cm x 20 cm x 34 cm) CubeSat spacecraft. ASTERIA was launched August 2017 as payload to the International Space Station and deployed into orbit on November 20, 2017. ASTERIA's current orbit matches the ISS inclination and has an average altitude of approximately 400 km. In this orbit, ASTERIA experiences an average of 30 minutes in Earth's shadow (eclipse) and 60 minutes in sunlight. ASTERIA is 3-axis stabilized via a set of reaction wheels. The reaction wheels are part of the XACT attitude control system provided by Blue Canyon Technology (BCT). Torque rods are used for reaction wheel desaturation. ASTERIA carries a small refractive telescope (f/1.4, ∼85 mm). The telescope focuses light on a 2592 x 2192 pixel CMOS detector. The detector pixels are 6.5 microns, yielding a plate scale of ∼15 arcsec/pixel. The full field of view of the detector is ∼9 x 10 degrees. ASTERIA's camera is deliberately defocused in order to oversample the PSF. 3 Definitions List of definitions for acronyms and other terms with specific meanings in the context of ASTERIA. • Epoch: The spacecraft epoch refers to the bootcount of the spacecraft. An epoch begins when ASTE- RIA's flight computer reboots and sets time to January 1, 1970 (the zero point for Unix timestamps). • Uptime: Spacecraft time is relative and is tracked in seconds from flight computer boot. -
OLLI Talk on Exoplanets
OLLI SC211 SPACE EXPLORATION: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE BEYOND EARTH April 13, 2017 Michal Peri NASA Solar System Ambassador Exoplanet2 Detection • Methods • Missions • Discoveries • Resources Image: C. Pulliam & D. Aguilar/CfA A long history … in our imaginations 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno#/media/File:Relief_Bruno_Campo_dei_Fiori_n1.jpg Giordano Bruno in his De l'infinito universo et mondi (1584) suggested that "stars are other suns with their own planets” that “have no less virtue nor a nature different to that of our earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants.” For this heresy, he was burned by the inquisition. 3 https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7148 5 Detection Methods Radial Velocity 619 planets Gravitational Microlensing 44 planets Direct Imaging 44 planets Transit 2771 planets Velocity generates Doppler 7 Shift Sound star receding star approaching Light wave “stretched” → red shift wave “squashed” → blue shift Orbiting planet causes Doppler shift in starlight 8 https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/interactable/11/ Radial Velocity Method 9 • The most successful method of detecting exoplanets pre-2010 • Doppler shifts in the stellar spectrum reveal presence of planetary companion(s) • Measure lower limit of the planetary mass and orbital parameters Doppler Shift Time Nikole K. Lewis, STScI Radial Velocity Detections Radial Velocity 1992 Planetary Mass 10 Detection Methods Radial Velocity 619 planets Gravitational Microlensing 44 planets Direct Imaging 44 planets Transit 2771 planets • Microlens -
Exoplanet Program Analysis Group (Exopag) Report Astrophysics Advisory Committee (APAC) Meeting
Exoplanet Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG) Report Astrophysics Advisory Committee (APAC) Meeting Victoria Meadows (ExoPAG Chair) Oct 23rd, 2018 Credit: NASA ExoPAG EC Membership Victoria Meadows (Chair) University of Washington Tom Barclay Goddard Space Flight Center Jessie Christiansen NExScI/Caltech Rebecca Jensen-Clem UC-Berkeley Tiffany Glassman Northrup Grumman Aerospace Systems Eliza Kempton University of Maryland Dimitri Mawet Caltech Michael Meyer University of Michigan Tyler Robinson Northern Arizona University Chris Stark Space Telescope Science Institute Johanna Teske Carnegie Observatories -> DTM Alan Boss (Past Chair) Carnegie Institution of Washington Martin Still (ex officio) NASA Credit: NASA Status of SAGs and SIGs Year SAG or SIG Title Lead 2018 SAG 16 Exoplanet Biosignatures (closed) Domagal-Goldman 2018 SAG 17 Community Resources Needed for K2 and TESS Planetary Candidate Confirmation Ciardi & Pepper (requesting closeout at this meeting) -- SAG 19 Exoplanet imaging signal detection theory and rigorous contrast metrics (active - Mawet & Jensen-Clem closeout expected in 2019) -- SIG 2 Exoplanet Demographics (Initiated at last meeting) Christiansen & Meyer -- SAG 20 Impact of JWST Delay on Exoplanet Science (requesting initiation at this meeting) Teske & Deming Credit: NASA ExoPAG Recent Activities • Robinson led the ExoPAG EC in agenda development for the ExoPAG19 meeting to be held in Seattle, Jan 5-6, 2019, prior to the Winter AAS. – Mini-science symposium on characterization of nearby planetary systems. – Showcase for exoplanet inputs to the Decadal Survey. • Additional call for an ExEP-funded program to support student travel to the ExoPAG19 meetings. Deadline Nov 1. Stark to administer program with ExEP. • Closeout of SAG17 presented by Ciardi to ExoPAG18 on July 29th. -
AWS Ground Station Antenna ASTERIA AWS
N E T 3 0 8 - R Enabling automated astrophysics with AWS Ground Station Tom Soderstrom Shayn Hawthorne CTIO, JPL Office of the CIO Senior Manager, AWS Ground Station Amazon Web Services © 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Agenda Intro to AWS Ground Station AWS Ground Station overview – customer view Demo ASTERIA AWS Ground Station experiment AWS Ground Station • Managed ground stations • No long-term commitments required • Simple, pay-as-you-go pricing – pay by the minute • Close proximity to AWS Regions • Self-service scheduling • First-come, first- served Traditional ground station challenges • Build, lease, or rent • Large up-front capital to build • Expensive and complex to maintain • Inelastic scaling • Opaque pricing • Scheduling conflicts and contention High-level architecture Customer VPC Downlink Antenna Tracking Mission data control processing EC2 Uplink Antenna Software radio / System data recovery Digitizer / Scheduling Tracking radio Telemetry and Control Self-service and automation through AWS Console and AWS APIs/SDK AWS Security and Identity Key events • Customers configure what they want to do (Mission Profile + Configs) • Customers reserve/schedule a Contact (Mission Profile + Configs + Satellite + Ground Station + Timing) • System executes the Contact Configuration • Customers create a Mission Profile consisting of multiple Configs to configure the antenna system for a contact • Configs and Mission Profiles are created via an API Mission Profile Dataflow Dataflow Edge Tracking Config -
Professor Sara Seager Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Sara Seager Massachusetts Institute of Technology Address: Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Science Building 54 Room 1718 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA, USA 02139 Phone: (617) 253-6779 (direct) E-mail: [email protected] Citizenship: US citizen since 7/20/2010 Birthdate: 7/21/1971 Professional History 1/2011–present: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA • Class of 1941 Professor (1/2012–present) • Professor of Planetary Science (7/2010–present) • Professor of Physics (7/2010–present) • Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering (7/2017–present) 1/2007–12/2011: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA • Ellen Swallow Richards Professorship (1/2007–12/2011) • Associate Professor of Planetary Science (1/2007–6/2010) • Associate Professor of Physics (7/2007–6/2010) • Chair of Planetary Group in the Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (2007–2015) 08/2002–12/2006: Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, USA • Senior Research Staff Member 09/1999–07/2002: Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ • Long Term Member (02/2001–07/2002) • Short Term Member (09/1999–02/2001) • Keck Fellow Educational History 1994–1999 Ph.D. “Extrasolar Planets Under Strong Stellar Irradiation” Department of Astronomy, Harvard University, MA, USA 1990–1994 B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics University of Toronto, Canada NSERC Science and Technology Fellowship (1990–1994) Awards and Distinctions Academic Awards and Distinctions 2018 American Philosophical Society Member 2018 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Member 2015 Honorary PhD, University of British Columbia 2015 National Academy of Sciences Member 2013 MacArthur Fellow 2012 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow 2007 Helen B. -
Big Exoplanet Science with Small Satellites David R
Big Exoplanet Science with Small Satellites David R. Ardila1, Varoujan Gorgian1, Mark Swain1, Michael Saing1 Competitive exoplanet science can be done with small telescopes: consortiums like KELT and WASP (transits), MINERVA (radial velocity and transits), OGLE (microlensing), and many others, demonstrate the power of dedicated ground facilities with small apertures to advance the field. Dedicated observations from space with small satellites (SmallSats) would allow dedicated continuous observing, with darker backgrounds, at wavelengths not reachable from the ground. Here we describe some of current and planned SmallSat missions for exoplanet science. The community has produced a number of concept studies that we use to illustrate their potential. With the promise of lower cost, the use of new technology, shorter development times, and frequent access to space, SmallSats provide unique opportunities to advance exoplanet science. What is a Small Satellite? We define a SmallSat as having mass ≤180 kg. The limit comes from the capabilities of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA). Then, another possible definition is a satellite small enough to be a secondary payload. At the upper mass end, a SmallSat will have payload dimensions close to ~50 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm, and will fit a 30-40 cm diameter telescope. At the lower end, the Breakthrough Starshot recently launched six 4 grams satellites (Crane 2017). For comparison, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), had a mass of 277 kg and a telescope diameter of 50 cm (NASA 2003). By this writing, NASA’s Astrophysics Division has never launched a SmallSat, although four CubeSats are planned, two of those for exoplanet science. -
Enabling and Enhancing Astrophysical Observations with Autonomous Systems
Enabling and Enhancing Astrophysical Observations with Autonomous Systems Rashied Amini1;a, Steve Chien1, Lorraine Fesq1, Jeremy Frank2 , Ksenia Kolcio3, Bertrand Mennsesson1, Sara Seager4, Rachel Street5 July 10, 2019 Endorsements Patricia Beauchamp1, John Day1, Russell Genet6, Jason Glenn7, Ryan Mackey1, Marco Quadrelli1, Rebecca Ringuette8, Daniel Stern1, Tiago Vaquero1 1NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2NASA Ames Research Center 3Okean Solutions 4 arXiv:2009.07361v1 [astro-ph.IM] 15 Sep 2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5Las Cumbres Observatory 6California Polytechnic State University 7University of Colorado at Boulder 8University of Iowa a [email protected] c 2019 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. 1 Executive Summary Servicing is a legal requirement for WFIRST Autonomy is the ability of a system to achieve and the Flagship mission of the 2030s [5], yet goals while operating independently of exter- past and planned demonstrations may not pro- nal control [1]. The revolutionary advantages vide sufficient future heritage to confidently meet of autonomous systems are recognized in nu- this requirement. In-space assembly (ISA) is cur- merous markets, e.g. automotive, aeronautics. rently being evaluated to construct large aper- Acknowledging the revolutionary impact of au- ture space telescopes [6]. For both servicing and tonomous systems, demand is increasing from ISA, there are questions about how nominal op- consumers and businesses alike and investments erations will be assured, the feasibility of teleop- have grown year-over-year to meet demand. In eration in deep space, and response to anomalies self-driving cars alone, $76B has been invested during robotic operation. from 2014 to 2017 [2]. In the previous Planetary The past decade has seen a revolution in Science Decadal, increased autonomy was identi- the access to space, with low cost launch ve- fied as one of eight core multi-mission technolo- hicles, commercial off-the-shelf technology, and gies required for future missions [3]. -
Interferometric Space Missions for Exoplanet Science: Legacy of Darwin/TPF
Interferometric Space Missions for Exoplanet Science: Legacy of Darwin/TPF D. Defrere` 1, O. Absil1, and C. Beichman2 1 Space sciences, Technologies & Astrophysics Research (STAR) Institute, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium. 2 NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Califor- nia, USA. Abstract DARWIN/TPF is a project of an infrared space-based interferometer designed to directly detect and charac- terize terrestrial exoplanets around nearby stars. Unlike spectro-photometric instruments observing planetary transits, an interferometer does not rely on any particular geometric constraints and could characterize exoplanets with any orbital configuration around nearby stars. The idea to use an infrared nulling interferometer to characterize exoplanets dates back to Bracewell(1978), and was extensively studied in the 1990s and 2000s by both ESA and NASA. The project focuses on the mid-infrared regime (5-20 mm), which provides access to key features of exoplanets, such as their size, their temperature, the presence of an atmosphere, their climate structure, as well as the presence of impor- tant atmospheric molecules such as H2O, CO2,O3, NH3, and CH4. This wavelength regime also provides a favorable planet/star contrast to detect the thermal emission of temperate (∼ 300 K) exoplanets (107 vs 1010 in the visible). In this chapter, we first review the scientific rationale of a mid-infrared nulling interferometer and present how it would provide an essential context for interpreting detections of possible biosignatures. Then, we present the main techno- logical challenges identified during the ESA and NASA studies, and how they have progressed over the last 10 years.