Engineering topics
Corsetti, James
Publications and source records attributed to Corsetti, James.
Fast Steering Mirror Disturbance Effects on Overall System Optical Performance for the Large Ultraviolet/optical/infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) Concept Using a Non-Contact Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System
As the optical performance requirements of space telescopes get more stringent, the need to analyze all possible error sources early in the mission design becomes critical. One large telescope with tight performance requirements is the Large Ultraviolet / Optical / Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) concept. The LUVOIR concept includes a 15-meter-diameter segmented-aperture telescope with a suite of serviceable instruments operating over a range of wavelengths between 100nm to 2.5um. Using an isolation architecture that involves no mechanical contact between the telescope and the host spacecraft structure allows for tighter performance metrics than current space-based telescopes being flown. Because of this separation, the spacecraft disturbances can be greatly reduced and disturbances on the telescope payload contribute more to the optical performance error. A portion of the optical performance error comes from the disturbances generated from the motion of the Fast Steering Mirror (FSM) on the payload. Characterizing the effects of this disturbance gives insight into the specifications on the FSM needed to achieve the tight optical performance requirements of the overall system. Through analysis of the LUVOIR finite element model and linear optical model given a range of input disturbances at the FSM, the optical performance of the telescope and recommendations for FSM specifications can be determined. The LUVOIR observatory control strategy consists of a multi-loop control architecture including the spacecraft Attitude Control System (ACS), Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System (VIPPS), and FSM. This paper focuses on the control loop containing the FSM disturbances and their effects on the telescope optical performance.
Overview of the Optomechanical Design of the LUVOIR Instruments
The Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) is a space telescope being submitted for review to the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Its science objectives include both direct imaging and spectral characterization of habitable exoplanets around sun-like stars, the study of planet, star, and galaxy formation, the transfer of matter between different galaxies, and the remote sensing of objects within the Solar System. Two architectures have been designed: a 15 m diameter on-axis telescope (LUVOIR-A) and an 8 m off-axis telescope (LUVOIR-B). This paper discusses the opto-mechanical design of the three LUVOIR instruments: the High Definition Imager (HDI), the LUVOIR UV Multi-object Spectrograph (LUMOS), and the Extreme Coronagraph for Living Planetary Systems (ECLIPS). For both the LUVOIR-A and LUVOIR-B variants of each instrument, optical design specifications are presented including first-order constraints, packaging requirements, and optical performance metrics. These factors are used to illustrate the final design of each instrument and LUVOIR as a whole. In addition to the optical designs, mechanical models are presented for each instrument showing the optical mounts, mechanisms, support structure, etc.
The Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR): Decadal Mission Concept Study Update
In preparation for the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics, NASA commissioned the study of four large mission concepts: the Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR), the Habitable Exoplanet Imager (HabEx), the far-infrared surveyor Origins Space Telescope (OST), and the X-ray surveyor Lynx. The LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) has identified a broad range of science objectives for LUVOIR that include the direct imaging and spectral characterization of habitable exoplanets around sun-like stars, the study of galaxy formation and evolution, the exchange of matter between galaxies, star and planet formation, and the remote sensing of Solar System objects. The LUVOIR Study Office, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), is developing two mission concepts to achieve the science objectives. LUVOIR-A is a 15-meter segmented-aperture observatory that would be launched in an 8.4-m extended fairing on the Space Launch System (SLS) Block 2 configuration. LUVOIR-B is an 8-meter unobscured segmented aperture telescope that fits in a smaller, conventional 5-meter fairing, but still requires the lift capacity of the SLS Block 1B Cargo vehicle. Both concepts include a suite of serviceable instruments: the Extreme Coronagraph for Living Planetary Systems (ECLIPS), an optical/near-infrared coronagraph capable of delivering 10 (sup minus10) contrast at inner working angles as small as 2 lambda divided by D; the LUVOIR UV Multi-object Spectrograph (LUMOS), which will provide low- and medium-resolution UV (100-400 nanometer) multi-object imaging spectroscopy in addition to far-UV imaging; the High Definition Imager (HDI), a high-resolution wide-field-of-view NUV-Optical-NIR imager. LUVOIR-A also has a fourth instrument, Pollux, a high-resolution UV spectro-polarimeter being contributed by Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). This paper provides an overview of the LUVIOR science objectives, design drivers, and mission concepts.
The Origins Survey Spectrometer (OSS): A Far-IR Discovery Machine for the Origins Space Telescope
The OSS on the Origins Space Telescope is designed to decode the cosmic history of nucleosynthesis, star formation, and supermassive black hole growth with wide-area spatial-spectral 3-D surveys across the full 25 to 590 micron band. Six wideband grating modules combine to cover the full band at R=300, each couples a long slit with 60–190 beams on the sky. OSS will have a total of 120,000 background-limited detector pixels in the six 2-D arrays which provide spatial and spectral coverage. The suite of grating modules can be used for pointed observations of targets of interest, and are particularly powerful for 3-D spectral spectral surveys. To chart the transition from interstellar material, particularly water, to planetary systems, two high-spectral-resolution modes are included. The first incorporates a Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) in front of the gratings providing resolving power of 25,000 (δv = 12 km/s) at 179µm to resolve water emission in protoplanetary disk spectra. The second boosts the FTS capability with an additional etalon (Fabry-Perot interferometer) to provide 2 km/s resolution in this line to enable detailed structural studies of disks in the various water and HD lines. Optical, thermal, and mechanical designs are presented, and the system approach to the detector readout enabling the large formats is described.
The Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR): Decadal Mission Study Update
NASA commissioned the study of four large mission concepts, including the Large Ultraviolet / Optical / Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor, to be evaluated by the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astrophysics. In response, the Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) identified a broad range of science objectives for LUVOIR that include the direct imaging and spectral characterization of habitable exoplanets around sun-like stars, the study of galaxy formation and evolution, the exchange of matter between galaxies, star and planet formation, and the remote sensing of Solar System objects. To meet these objectives, the LUVOIR Study Office, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), completed the first design iteration of a 15-m segmented-aperture observatory that would be launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) Block 2 configuration. The observatory includes four serviceable instruments: the Extreme Coronagraph for Living Planetary Systems (ECLIPS), an optical / near-infrared coronagraph capable of delivering 10(exp -10) contrast at inner working angles as small as 2 lambda/D; the LUVOIR UV Multi-object Spectrograph (LUMOS), which will provide low- and medium-resolution UV (100 - 400 nm) multi-object imaging spectroscopy in addition to far-UV imaging; the High Definition Imager (HDI), a high-resolution wide-field-of-view NUV-Optical-NIR imager; and Pollux, a high-resolution UV spectro-polarimeter being contributed by Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The study team has executed a second design iteration to further improve upon the 15-m concept, while simultaneously studying an 8-m concept. In these proceedings, we provide an update on these two architectures.
Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) II: Component Systems Update
"This work presents updates to the coronagraph and telescope components of the Segmented Aperture Interfer-ometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT). The project pairs an actively-controlled macro-scale segmented mirror withthe Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC) towards demonstrating capabilities for the future space observatoriesneeded to directly detect and characterize a significant sample of Earth-sized worlds around nearby stars inthe quest for identifying those which may be habitable and possibly harbor life. Efforts to improve the VNCwavefront control optics and mechanisms towards repeating narrowband results are described. A narrative isprovided for the design of new optical components aimed at enabling broadband performance. Initial work withthe hardware and software interface for controlling the segmented telescope mirror is also presented."