The Terrestrial Planet Finder mission will search for Earth-like, extrasolar planets. The Coronagraph architecture option (TPF-C) will use contrast imaging to suppress the bright starlight in order to detect reflected visible light from the planet. To achieve the required contrast ratio stability of 2e-11, the payload pointing stability must be maintained to better than 4 milli-asec (1σ). The passive TPF-C pointing architecture uses a 3-stage control system combined with a 2- stage passive isolation system to achieve the required pointing accuracy. The active pointing stage includes reaction wheels used for coarse pointing of the spacecraft, a position controlled secondary mirror that provides intermediate alignment, and a Fine Guidance Mirror that provides fine steering control.
Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph pointing control system design and evaluation for flight baseline 1.
31.07.2005
Preprint
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph
NTRS | 2003
|Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph
NTRS | 2003
|