A pareto-optimal characterization of miniaturized distributed occulter/telescope systems

Adam W. Koenig; Simone D'Amico; Bruce Macintosh; Charles J. Titus

doi:10.1117/12.2187324

16 September 2015 A pareto-optimal characterization of miniaturized distributed occulter/telescope systems

Adam W. Koenig, Simone D'Amico, Bruce Macintosh, Charles J. Titus

Proceedings Volume 9605, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VII; 960514 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2187324
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Distributed occulter/telescope systems hold great promise in the field of direct exoplanet imaging. However, proposed missions using this concept such as the New Worlds Observer or Exo-S (NASA) are exceptionally large with occulter diameters of tens of meters and inter-spacecraft separations of tens of megameters, requiring deployment in deep space. The estimated costs associated with these missions are in the billions of dollars. In order to reduce the risk associated with these missions, it is desirable to first deploy a low-cost technology demonstrator mission to prove that the distributed occulter telescope concept is valid. To that end, this work assesses the feasibility of miniaturizing the optics of the distributed occulter/telescope to enable deployment on micro- or nano-satellites in earth orbit. A variant of the convex optimization formulation introduced by previous authors is used to generate a pareto-optimal characterization between the achievable occulter contrast and a set of critical design variables (occulter radius, inner working angle, science spectrum, etc). This characterization is performed for two different sets of engineering constraints, corresponding to different levels of design complexity. The results of this study are compared to the performance requirements for imaging targets of scientific interest, namely exozodiacal dust disks, in order to identify promising design envelopes. The result of this work is a comprehensive trade of the capabilities of miniaturized, binary, petal-shaped occulters. This research demonstrates that there exist miniaturized occulter geometries compatible with micro- or nano-satellites in earth orbit suitable for imaging exozodiacal dust disks. In addition, this study provides a valuable methodology and performance guidelines for future distributed occulter/telescope designs.

Citation Download Citation

Adam W. Koenig, Simone D'Amico, Bruce Macintosh, and Charles J. Titus "A pareto-optimal characterization of miniaturized distributed occulter/telescope systems", Proc. SPIE 9605, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VII, 960514 (16 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2187324

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