Starshade design driven by stray light from edge scatter

Suzanne Casement; Martin Flannery; Tiffany Glassman; Amy Lo

doi:10.1117/12.926933

21 September 2012 Starshade design driven by stray light from edge scatter

Suzanne Casement, Martin Flannery, Tiffany Glassman, Amy Lo

Proceedings Volume 8442, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 84424H (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926933
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The use of an external occulter, or starshade, has been proposed as one method for the direct detection and spectral characterization of terrestrial planets around other stars, a key goal identified in ASTRO2010. Because of the observational geometry, one of the concerns is stray light from the edge of the starshade that is scattered into the line of sight of the telescope. We have developed a stray light model using physical properties of a realizable starshade edge geometry and material to calculate the resulting stray light. The background signal due to stray light has been calculated for the two telescope architectures adopted for study by the Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG), a 4 m monolithic and an 8 m segmented mirror design. Using these results, we have developed a set of design requirements and structure features that will result in a buildable system with stray light levels that meet the overall system sensitivity requirements.

Citation Download Citation

Suzanne Casement, Martin Flannery, Tiffany Glassman, and Amy Lo "Starshade design driven by stray light from edge scatter", Proc. SPIE 8442, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 84424H (21 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926933

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