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Due to the reporting from the Astro2020: Decadal Survey for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets has become a leading priority for research and development in astrophysics. In response to this survey, NASA has selected the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) as its next astrophysics flagship mission. However, the current state-of-the-art coronagraph technology is not sufficient to achieve the required contrast (approximately 10−10) with HWO’s proposed configuration. Improving the technology readiness level of coronagraphs for HWO will require extensive research and development. To increase its capacity to support this objective and to provide the community with a new resource to perform versatile coronagraph technology development, NASA’s High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has commissioned the Decadal Survey Testbed 2 (DST2), a state-of-the-art vacuum coronagraph testbed. It’s commissioned architecture incorporates a 2K-actuator Boston Micromachines deformable mirror and a traditional Lyot coronagraph and features a flexible design capable of accommodating different coronagraph technologies including tip/tilt mirrors, segmented apertures, reflective pupils, disturbance injection, wavefront sensing and control, and the integration of additional sources or telescope simulators with minimal reconfiguration. DST2 has repeatably achieved 1 × 10−9 monochromatic raw contrast, and 3.3 × 10−9 raw contrast in a 10% bandwidth centered at 550nm in a 180 degree dark hole from 3λ/D to 9λ/D. Additionally, DST2 uses new 20-bit DM electronics capable of a 650 femtometer DM actuator resolution which meets future requirements for HWO. As of August 2023, DST2 has begun operations to meet scientific milestones set by the principal investigators of NASA Strategic Astrophysics Technologies awards. Parallel to these priorities, work to determine contrast limitations will be performed.
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