KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Optical alignment, Imaging systems, Point spread functions, Vacuum ultraviolet, Calibration, Tunable filters, Sensors, Signal to noise ratio
The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a NASA Heliophysics mission designed to study the variability of Earth’s hydrogen exosphere. Launching in 2025, the Carruthers GeoCoronal Imager (GCI) will observe the exosphere at Far Ultraviolet wavelengths from an Earth-Sun L1 vantage point. The GCI consists of two coaligned imagers that simultaneously provide both wide field observations of the entire exosphere, in addition to high spatial resolution observations near the Earth’s limb. The optical prescription for both the narrow field imager (NFI) and wide field imager (WFI) is discussed, including critical analyses that were performed during the design phase of the project. A deterministic alignment approach was adopted to verify performances of the imagers at visible wavelengths prior to verification in the vacuum ultraviolet. The details of this alignment plan, along with opto-mechanical considerations and requirements are discussed in detail. Finally, we discuss the imaging performance of the system in the ultraviolet utilizing a ground calibration facility previously developed for another NASA spaceflight mission.
The Habitable-Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a candidate flagship mission being studied by NASA and the astrophysics community in preparation of the 2020 Decadal Survey. The first HabEx mission concept that has been studied is a large (~4m) diffraction-limited optical space telescope, providing unprecedented resolution and contrast in the optical, with extensions into the near ulttraviolet and near infrared domains. We report here on our team’s efforts in defining a scientifically compelling HabEx mission that is technologically executable, affordable within NASA’s expected budgetary envelope, and timely for the next decade. We also briefly discuss our plans to explore less ambitious, descoped missions relative to the primary mission architecture discussed here.
The Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) concept has been designed to enable an extensive suite of science, broadly put under the rubric of General Astrophysics, in addition to its exoplanet direct imaging science. General astrophysics directly addresses multiple NASA programmatic branches, and HabEx will enable investigations ranging from cosmology, to galaxy evolution, to stellar population studies, to exoplanet transit spectroscopy, to Solar System studies. This poster briefly describes one of the two primary HabEx General Astrophysics instruments, the HabEx Workhorse Camera (HWC). HWC will be a dual-detector UV-to-near-IR imager and multi-object grism spectrometer with a microshutter array and a moderate (3' x 3') field-of-view. We detail some of the key science we expect HWC to undertake, emphasizing unique capabilities enabled by a large-aperture, highly stable space-borne platform at these
wavelengths.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.