Engineering topics
Shaklan, Stuart B.
Publications and source records attributed to Shaklan, Stuart B..
Fast Linearized Coronagraph Optimizer (FALCO) I: A Software Toolbox for Rapid Coronagraphic Design and Wavefront Correction
The Fast Linearized Coronagraph Optimizer (FALCO) is an open-source toolbox of routines for coronagraphic focal plane wavefront correction. The goal of FALCO is to provide a free, modular framework for the simulation or testbed operation of several common types of coronagraphs. FALCO includes routines for pair-wise probing estimation of the complex electric field and Electric Field Conjugation (EFC) control, and we ask the community to contribute other wavefront correction algorithms. FALCO utilizes and builds upon PROPER, an established optical propagation library. The key innovation in FALCO is the rapid computation of the linearized response matrix for each deformable mirror (DM), which facilitates re-linearization after each control step for faster DM-integrated coronagraph design and wavefront correction experiments. FALCO is freely available as source code in MATLAB at github.com/ajeldorado/falco-matlab and will be available later this year in Python 3 at github.com/ajeldorado/falco-python.
Analysis of Random Segment Errors on Coronagraph Performance
At 2015 SPIE O&P we presented "Preliminary Analysis of Random Segment Errors on Coronagraph Performance" Key Findings: Contrast Leakage for 4thorder Sinc2(X) coronagraph is 10X more sensitive to random segment piston than random tip/tilt, Fewer segments (i.e. 1 ring) or very many segments (> 16 rings) has less contrast leakage as a function of piston or tip/tilt than an aperture with 2 to 4 rings of segments. Revised Findings: Piston is only 2.5X more sensitive than Tip/Tilt
Scaling Relation for Occulter Manufacturing Errors
For directly imaging exoplanets, NASA is considering space mission designs that use an external occulter as the principal starlight suppression system. These occulter designs range in diameter from 16 to 40 meters and separation distance from 8,000 to 60,000 kilometers for telescopes with primary diameters of 0.5 to 4 meters. Occulter shapes are solutions to an optimization problem which seeks to maximize suppression in the shadow subject to constraints such as size, separation, and wavelengths. These designs are based on scalar diffraction theory and must be verified experimentally to demonstrate predicted on-orbit performance. Due to the large sizes and separations involved the experiment must be scaled to lab size. We are currently expanding the existing experimental test-bed at Princeton to enable scaling of occulters operating at flight Fresnel sizes. Here we examine the effect on suppression performance of edge defects and their scaling to test-bed size.
Preliminary Analysis of Effect of Random Segment Errors on Coronagraph Performance
No abstract available
Scaling Relation for Occulter Manufacturing Errors
An external occulter is a spacecraft own along the line-of-sight of a space telescope to suppress starlight and enable high-contrast direct imaging of exoplanets. The shape of an external occulter must be specially designed to optimally suppress starlight and deviations from the ideal shape due to manufacturing errors can result loss of suppression in the shadow. Due to the long separation distances and large dimensions involved for a space occulter, laboratory testing is conducted with scaled versions of occulters etched on silicon wafers. Using numerical simulations for a flight Fresnel occulter design, we show how the suppression performance of an occulter mask scales with the available propagation distance for expected random manufacturing defects along the edge of the occulter petal. We derive an analytical model for predicting performance due to such manufacturing defects across the petal edges of an occulter mask and compare this with the numerical simulations. We discuss the scaling of an extended occulter test-bed.
Preliminary Analysis of Effect of Random Segment Errors on Coronagraph Performance
Are we alone in the Universe is probably the most compelling science question of our generation. To answer it requires a large aperture telescope with extreme wavefront stability. To image and characterize Earth-like planets requires the ability to block 10(exp 10) of the host stars light with a 10(exp -11) stability. For an internal coronagraph, this requires correcting wavefront errors and keeping that correction stable to a few picometers rms for the duration of the science observation. This requirement places severe specifications upon the performance of the observatory, telescope and primary mirror. A key task of the AMTD project (initiated in FY12) is to define telescope level specifications traceable to science requirements and flow those specifications to the primary mirror. From a systems perspective, probably the most important question is: What is the telescope wavefront stability specification? Previously, we suggested this specification should be 10 picometers per 10 minutes; considered issues of how this specification relates to architecture, i.e. monolithic or segmented primary mirror; and asked whether it was better to have few or many segmented. This paper reviews the 10 picometers per 10 minutes specification; provides analysis related to the application of this specification to segmented apertures; and suggests that a 3 or 4 ring segmented aperture is more sensitive to segment rigid body motion that an aperture with fewer or more segments.
Error Budgets for the Exoplanet Starshade (exo-s) Probe-Class Mission Study
Exo-S is a probe-class mission study that includes the Dedicated mission, a 30 millimeters starshade co-launched with a 1.1 millimeter commercial telescope in an Earth-leading deep-space orbit, and the Rendezvous mission, a 34 millimeter starshade intended to work with a 2.4 millimeters telescope in an Earth-Sun L2 orbit. A third design, referred to as the Rendezvous Earth Finder mission, is based on a 40 millimeter starshade and is currently under study. This paper presents error budgets for the detection of Earth-like planets with each of these missions. The budgets include manufacture and deployment tolerances, the allowed thermal fluctuations and dynamic motions, formation flying alignment requirements, surface and edge reflectivity requirements, and the allowed transmission due to micrometeoroid damage.
A Future Large-Aperture UVOIR Space Observatory: Key Technologies and Capabilities
We present the key technologies and capabilities that will enable a future, large-aperture ultravioletopticalinfrared (UVOIR) space observatory. These include starlight suppression systems, vibration isolation and control systems, lightweight mirror segments, detector systems, and mirror coatings. These capabilities will provide major advances over current and near-future observatories for sensitivity, angular resolution, and starlight suppression. The goals adopted in our study for the starlight suppression system are 10-10 contrast with an inner working angle of 20 milliarcsec and broad bandpass. We estimate that a vibration and isolation control system that achieves a total system vibration isolation of 140 dB for a vibration-isolated mass of 5000 kg is required to achieve the high wavefront error stability needed for exoplanet coronagraphy. Technology challenges for lightweight mirror segments include diffraction-limited optical quality and high wavefront error stability as well as low cost, low mass, and rapid fabrication. Key challenges for the detector systems include visible-blind, high quantum efficiency UV arrays, photon counting visible and NIR arrays for coronagraphic spectroscopy and starlight wavefront sensing and control, and detectors with deep full wells with low persistence and radiation tolerance to enable transit imaging and spectroscopy at all wavelengths. Finally, mirror coatings with high reflectivity ( 90), high uniformity ( 1) and low polarization ( 1) that are scalable to large diameter mirror substrates will be essential for ensuring that both high throughput UV observations and high contrast observations can be performed by the same observatory.
Assessing the Performance Limits of Internal Coronagraphs Through End-to-End Modeling
As part of the NASA ROSES Technology Demonstrations for Exoplanet Missions (TDEM) program, we conducted a numerical modeling study of three internal coronagraphs (PIAA, vector vortex, hybrid bandlimited) to understand their behaviors in realistically-aberrated systems with wavefront control (deformable mirrors). This investigation consisted of two milestones: (1) develop wavefront propagation codes appropriate for each coronagraph that are accurate to 1% or better (compared to a reference algorithm) but are also time and memory efficient, and (2) use these codes to determine the wavefront control limits of each architecture. We discuss here how the milestones were met and identify some of the behaviors particular to each coronagraph. The codes developed in this study are being made available for community use. We discuss here results for the HBLC and VVC systems, with PIAA having been discussed in a previous proceeding.
A Starshade Petal Error Budget for Exo-Earth Detection and Characterization
We present a starshade error budget with engineering requirements that are well within the current manufacturing and metrology capabilities. The error budget is based on an observational scenario in which the starshade spins about its axis on timescales short relative to the zodi-limited integration time, typically several hours. The scatter from localized petal errors is smoothed into annuli around the center of the image plane, resulting in a large reduction in the background flux variation while reducing thermal gradients caused by structural shadowing. Having identified the performance sensitivity to petal shape errors with spatial periods of 3-4 cycles/petal as the most challenging aspect of the design, we have adopted and modeled a manufacturing approach that mitigates these perturbations with 1-meter-long precision edge segments positioned using commercial metrology that readily meets assembly requirements. We have performed detailed thermal modeling and show that the expected thermal deformations are well within the requirements as well. We compare the requirements for four cases: a 32 meter diameter starshade with a 1.5 meter telescope, analyzed at 75 and 90 milliarcseconds, and a 40 meter diameter starshade with a 4 meter telescope, analyzed at 60 and 75 milliarcseconds.
Stability Error Budget for an Aggressive Coronagraph on a 3.8 m Telescope
No abstract available
Advanced Speckle Sensing for Internal Coronagraphs
A 4-8m telescope carrying a coronagraph instrument is a leading candidate for an anticipated flagship mission to detect and characterize Earth-size exoplanets in the 2020s. Many candidate coronagraph instruments have been proposed, and one has met many of the principal requirements for that mission. But the telescope and instrument will need exquisite stability and precise control of the incoming wavefront to enable detection of faint companions (10(exp -10) of the star) at an angular separation of 2-4 Airy radii. In particular, wavefront errors cause speckles in the image, and variations in those speckles can confound the exoplanet detection. This challenge is compounded by the background light from zodiacal dust around our Sun and the target star, which limits the speed with which we can estimate and correct the speckles. We are working on developing coherent speckle detection techniques that will allow rapid calibration of speckles on the science detector, allowing subtraction in post-processing or correction with deformable mirrors. The expected speed improvement allows a much quicker timeline for measurement & calibration, which reduces the required telescope stability requirement and eases both the flight system design and the challenge of ground testing. We will describe the experiments and summarize progress to date.
Stability Error Budget for an Aggressive Coronagraph on a 3.8 m Telescope
We evaluate in detail the stability requirements for a band-limited coronagraph with an inner working angle as small as 2 lambda/D coupled to an off-axis, 3.8-m diameter telescope. We have updated our methodologies since presenting a stability error budget for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph mission that worked at 4 lambda/D and employed an 8th-order mask to reduce aberration sensitives. In the previous work, we determined the tolerances relative to the total light leaking through the coronagraph. Now, we separate the light into a radial component, which is readily separable from a planet signal, and an azimuthal component, which is easily confused with a planet signal. In the current study, throughput considerations require a 4th-order coronagraph. This, combined with the more aggressive working angle, places extraordinarily tight requirements on wavefront stability and opto-mechanical stability. We find that the requirements are driven mainly by coma that leaks around the coronagraph mask and mimics the localized signal of a planet, and pointing errors that scatter light into the background, decreasing SNR. We also show how the requirements would be relaxed if a low-order aberration detection system could be employed.
Mirror Technology Roadmap for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program
There are several possible approaches to designing exoplanet missions: (1) Coronagraphs (2) Interferometers (3) Starshades Wavefront sensing and control is the central concern, not mirror size (1) Starlight suppression with deformable mirrors (2) Thermal and structural stability (3) Metrology for sensing and control Diffraction-limited optical primary mirrors 4-m or larger are needed to detect Earthlike planets (1) Surface figure similar to HST required (2) Smaller primary mirrors can be used with aggressive coronagraph designs, but the stability tolerances become the driving concern (3) Stability tolerances of coronagraphs are greatly reduced when larger primaries are used in conjunction with 8th-order masks Long term vision for large telescope development includes space-based segmented-mirror telescopes using actively-controlled glass segments or silicon carbide hybrid-mirror designs
The JWST/NIRCam Coronagraph Flight Occulters
The NIRCam instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope will have a Lyot coronagraph for high contrast imaging of extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks at lambda = 2 - 5 micrometers. Half-tone patterns are used to create graded-transmission image plane masks. These are generated using electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching of a metal layer on an antireflection coated sapphire substrate. We report here on the manufacture and evaluation of the flight occulters.