Twinkle -- a small satellite spectroscopy mission for the next phase of exoplanet science

Abstract

With a focus on off-the-shelf components, Twinkle is the first in a series of cost competitive small satellites managed and financed by Blue Skies Space Ltd. The satellite is based on a high-heritage Airbus platform that will carry a 0.45 m telescope and a spectrometer which will provide simultaneous wavelength coverage from 0.5-4.5 $\mu \mathrm{m}$. The spacecraft prime is Airbus Stevenage while the telescope is being developed by Airbus Toulouse and the spectrometer by ABB Canada. Scheduled to begin scientific operations in 2025, Twinkle will sit in a thermally-stable, sun-synchronous, low-Earth orbit. The mission has a designed operation lifetime of at least seven years and, during the first three years of operation, will conduct two large-scale survey programmes: one focused on Solar System objects and the other dedicated to extrasolar targets. Here we present an overview of the architecture of the mission, refinements in the design approach, and some of the key science themes of the extrasolar survey.

Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation 2022

References in corpus (13)

• The imprint of exoplanet formation history on observable present-day spectra of hot Jupiters
• A hybrid line list for CH${}_4$ and hot methane continuum
• Titanium oxide and chemical inhomogeneity in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-189b
• An Atomic Spectral Survey of WASP-76b: Resolving Chemical Gradients and Asymmetries
• Five key exoplanet questions answered via the analysis of 25 hot Jupiter atmospheres in eclipse
• Decaying Orbit of the Hot Jupiter WASP-12b: Confirmation with TESS Observations
• TESS Revisits WASP-12: Updated Orbital Decay Rate and Constraints on Atmospheric Variability
• ARES III: Unveiling the Two Faces of KELT-7 b with HST WFC3
• The Ariel Target List: The Impact of TESS and the Potential for Characterising Multiple Planets Within a System
• Detection of iron emission lines and a temperature inversion on the dayside of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-20b
• Ariel: Enabling planetary science across light-years
• Terminus: A Versatile Simulator for Space-based Telescopes
• Observations of PAHs in the atmospheres of discs and exoplanets

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Measuring Tracers of Planet Formation in the Atmosphere of WASP-77A b: Sub-stellar O/H and C/H ratios, with a stellar C/O ratio and a potentially Super-stellar Ti/H ratio
• Instrumentation prospects for rocky exoplanet atmospheres studies with high resolution spectroscopy
• A Population Analysis of 20 Exoplanets Observed from the Optical to the Near-infrared Wavelengths with HST: Evidence for Widespread Stellar Contamination
• ExoSim 2: the new Exoplanet Observation Simulator applied to the Ariel space mission
• Optimal frequency-domain analysis for spacecraft time series: Introducing the missing-data multitaper power spectrum estimator
• Exploring Synergies between Twinkle and Ariel: a Pilot Study