Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) II: component systems update

Brian A. Hicks; Matthew R. Bolcar; Michael A. Helmbrecht; Peter Petrone III; Elliot Burke; James Corsetti; Thomas Dillon; Andrew Lea; Samuel Pellicori; Teresa Sheets; Ron Shiri; Jack Agolli; John DeVries; Andrew Eberhardt; Tyler McCabe

doi:10.1117/12.2273905

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1 September 2017 Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) II: component systems update

Brian A. Hicks, Matthew R. Bolcar, Michael A. Helmbrecht, Peter Petrone III, Elliot Burke, James Corsetti, Thomas Dillon, Andrew Lea, Samuel Pellicori, Teresa Sheets, Ron Shiri, Jack Agolli, John DeVries, Andrew Eberhardt, Tyler McCabe

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Proceedings Volume 10400, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VIII; 104001I (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2273905
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2017, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

This work presents updates to the coronagraph and telescope components of the Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT). The project pairs an actively-controlled macro-scale segmented mirror with the Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC) towards demonstrating capabilities for the future space observatories needed to directly detect and characterize a significant sample of Earth-sized worlds around nearby stars in the quest for identifying those which may be habitable and possibly harbor life. Efforts to improve the VNC wavefront control optics and mechanisms towards repeating narrowband results are described. A narrative is provided for the design of new optical components aimed at enabling broadband performance. Initial work with the hardware and software interface for controlling the segmented telescope mirror is also presented.

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Brian A. Hicks, Matthew R. Bolcar, Michael A. Helmbrecht, Peter Petrone III, Elliot Burke, James Corsetti, Thomas Dillon, Andrew Lea, Samuel Pellicori, Teresa Sheets, Ron Shiri, Jack Agolli, John DeVries, Andrew Eberhardt, and Tyler McCabe "Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) II: component systems update", Proc. SPIE 10400, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VIII, 104001I (1 September 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2273905

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