Laser Guide Star for Large Segmented-Aperture Space Telescopes, Part I: Implications for Terrestrial Exoplanet Detection and Observatory Stability

Abstract

Precision wavefront control on future segmented-aperture space telescopes presents significant challenges, particularly in the context of high-contrast exoplanet direct imaging. We present a new wavefront control architecture that translates the ground-based artificial guide star concept to space with a laser source aboard a second spacecraft, formation flying within the telescope field-of-view. We describe the motivating problem of mirror segment motion and develop wavefront sensing requirements as a function of guide star magnitude and segment motion power spectrum. Several sample cases with different values for transmitter power, pointing jitter, and wavelength are presented to illustrate the advantages and challenges of having a non-stellar-magnitude noise limited wavefront sensor for space telescopes. These notional designs allow increased control authority, potentially relaxing spacecraft stability requirements by two orders of magnitude, and increasing terrestrial exoplanet discovery space by allowing high-contrast observations of stars of arbitrary brightness.

Submitted to AJ

References in corpus (16)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• Kepler Mission Design, Realized Photometric Performance, and Early Science
• The Habitability of Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars
• Limits of Adaptive Optics for high contrast imaging
• The Spectrum of Earthshine: A Pale Blue Dot Observed from the Ground
• Maximizing the ExoEarth Candidate Yield from a Future Direct Imaging Mission
• Calibration of quasi-static aberrations in exoplanet direct-imaging instruments with a Zernike phase-mask sensor
• The Structure of High Strehl Ratio Point-Spread Functions
• Lower Limits on Aperture Size for an ExoEarth-Detecting Coronagraphic Mission
• The Solar Neighborhood XLIV: RECONS Discoveries within 10 Parsecs
• Optimization of cw sodium laser guide star efficiency
• Apodized pupil Lyot coronagraphs for arbitrary apertures. V. Hybrid Shaped Pupil designs for imaging Earth-like planets with future space observatories
• Shaped Pupil Lyot Coronagraphs: High-Contrast Solutions for Restricted Focal Planes
• Fine cophasing of segmented aperture telescopes with ZELDA, a Zernike wavefront sensor in the diffraction-limited regime
• On-sky demonstration of low-order wavefront sensing and control with focal plane phase mask coronagraphs
• Artificial guide stars for adaptive optics using unmanned aerial vehicles

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Wavefront sensing and control in space-based coronagraph instruments using Zernike's phase-contrast method
• Wavefront tolerances of space-based segmented telescopes at very high contrast: Experimental validation
• Information-theoretical Limits of Recursive Estimation and Closed-loop Control in High-contrast Imaging
• Adaptive optics performance of a simulated coronagraph instrument on a large, segmented space telescope in steady state
• Approaches to lowering the cost of large space telescopes