Design of a laboratory testbed for external occulters at flight Fresnel numbers

Yunjong Kim; Mike Galvin; N. Jeremy Kasdin; Robert J. Vanderbei; Dongok Ryu; Ki-Won Kim; Sug-Whan Kim; Dan Sirbu

doi:10.1117/12.2186349

16 September 2015 Design of a laboratory testbed for external occulters at flight Fresnel numbers

Yunjong Kim, Mike Galvin, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Robert J. Vanderbei, Dongok Ryu, Ki-Won Kim, Sug-Whan Kim, Dan Sirbu

Proceedings Volume 9605, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VII; 960511 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2186349
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

One of the main candidates for creating high-contrast for future Exo-Earth detection is an external occulter or sharshade. A starshade blocks the light from the parent star by flying in formation along the line-of-sight from a space telescope. Because of its large size and scale it is impossible to fully test a starshade system on the ground before launch. Instead, we rely on modeling supported by subscale laboratory tests to verify the models. At Princeton, we are designing and building a subscale testbed to verify the suppression and contrast of a starshade at the same Fresnel number as a flight system, and thus mathematically identical to a realistic space mission. Here we present the mechanical design of the testbed and simulations predicting the ultimate contrast performance. We will also present progress in implementation and preliminary results.

Citation Download Citation

Yunjong Kim, Mike Galvin, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Robert J. Vanderbei, Dongok Ryu, Ki-Won Kim, Sug-Whan Kim, and Dan Sirbu "Design of a laboratory testbed for external occulters at flight Fresnel numbers", Proc. SPIE 9605, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VII, 960511 (16 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2186349

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