One of the primary science goals of the Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission concept is to detect and characterize Earth-like exoplanets around nearby stars with direct imaging. The success of its integrated instrument ECLIPS (Extreme Coronagraph for Living Planetary Systems) depends on the ability to stabilize the wavefront from a large segmented mirror at a level of a few picometers during an exposure time of a few hours. To relax the constraints on the mechanical stability, ECLIPS will be equipped with a wavefront sensing and control (WS&C) architecture to correct wavefront errors at high temporal frequencies (<~1 Hz). These errors are expected to be dominated by spacecraft structural dynamics exciting vibrations at the segmented primary mirror. In this work, we present detailed simulations of the WS&C system within the ECLIPS instrument and the resulting contrast performance. This study assumes realistic wavefront aberrations based on a Finite Element Model of the telescope and the spacecraft structural dynamics. Wavefront residuals are then computed according to a model of the adaptive optics system that includes numerical propagation to simulate realistic images on the wavefront sensor and an analytical model of the temporal performance. An end-to-end numerical propagation model of ECLIPS is then used to estimate the residual starlight intensity distribution on the science detector. We show that the contrast performance depends strongly on the target star magnitude and advocate for the use of laser metrology to mitigate high temporal frequency wavefront errors and increase the mission yield.
For the Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) to perform high-contrast direct imaging of habitable exoplanets using a coronagraph instrument, the system must maintain extremely low system dynamic wavefront error (on the order of 10 picometers RMS over the spatial frequencies corresponding to the dark-hole region of the coronagraph) over a long time wavefront control sampling interval (typically 10 or more minutes). Meeting this level of performance requires a telescope vibration isolation system that delivers a high degree of dynamic isolation over a broad frequency range. A non-contact pointing and isolation system called the Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System (VIPPS) has been baselined for the LUVOIR architecture. Lockheed Martin has partnered with NASA to predict the dynamic wavefront error (WFE) performance of such a system, and mature the technology through integrated modeling, subsystem test and subscale hardware demonstration. Previous published results on LUVOIR dynamic WFE stability performance have relied on preliminary models that do not explicitly include the effects of a segmented Primary Mirror. This paper presents a study of predicted dynamic WFE performance of the LUVOIR-A architecture during steady-state operation of the coronagraph instrument, using an integrated model consisting of a segmented primary mirror, optical sensitivities, steering mirror and non-contact isolation, and control systems. The design assumptions and stability properties of the control system are summarized. Principal observatory disturbance sources included are control moment gyroscope and steering mirror exported loads. Finally, observatory architecture trades are discussed that explore tradeoffs between system performance, concept of operation and technology readiness.
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