The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission planned for launch in 2026. The Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) on Roman will demonstrate the technology for direct imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets around nearby stars. It will work with the 2.4-meter diameter telescope to achieve starlight suppression and point source detection limits that are 2–3 orders of magnitude deeper than previous space-based and groundbased coronagraphs by using active wavefront control with deformable mirrors. CGI has passed its Critical Design Review (CDR) in April of 2021, and System Integration Review (SIR) in June of 2022. We describe the status of CGI’s development and plans for the upcoming integration and testing phase.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST) will be launched in the mid-2020s with an onboard Coronagraph Instrument which will serve as a technology demonstrator for exoplanet direct imaging. The Roman Coronagraph will be capable of detecting and characterizing exoplanets and circumstellar disks in visible light at an unprecedented contrast level of ~10-8 or better at small separations. Such a contrast level, which is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude better than state-of-the-art visible or near-infrared coronagraphs, raises entirely new challenges that will be overcome using a combination of hardware, calibration and data processing. In particular, the Roman Coronagraph will be the first space-based coronagraphic instrument with active low- and high-order wavefront control through the use of largeformat (48x48) deformable mirrors, and its electron-multiplying Charge Coupled Device (EMCCD) detector will enable faint signal detection in photon-counting mode. The Roman Coronagraph successfully passed its critical design review in April 2021 and its system integration review in June 2022. It is now well on its path to demonstrate many core technologies at the levels required for a future exo-Earth direct imaging mission.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formally WFIRST) will be launched in the mid-2020’s with an onboard coronagraph instrument which will serve as a technology demonstrator for exoplanet direct imaging. The Roman Coronagraph will be capable of detecting and characterizing exoplanets and circumstellar disks in visible light at an unprecedented contrast level of ~10-8 or lower. Such a contrast level, which is several magnitudes better than state-of-the-art visible or near-infrared coronagraphs, raises entirely new challenges that will be overcome using a combination of hardware, calibration and data processing. In particular, the Roman Coronagraph will be the first space-based coronagraphic instrument with real-time active wavefront control through the use of large format deformable mirrors, and its EMCCD detector will enable faint signal detection in photon-counting mode. The Roman Coronagraph instrument passed its critical design review successfully in April 2021, and is now well on its path to demonstrate many core technologies at the levels required for future exo-Earth direct imaging missions.
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