Open Access
4 February 2022 High spatial resolution spectral imaging method for space interferometers and its application to formation flying small satellites
Taro Matsuo, Satoshi Ikari, Hirotaka Kondo, Sho Ishiwata, Shinichi Nakasuka, Tomoyasu Yamamuro
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Infrared space interferometers can surpass the spatial resolution limitations of single-dish space telescopes. However, stellar interferometers from space have not been realized because of technical difficulties. Two beams coming from individual satellites separated by more than a few tens of meters should precisely interfere such that the optical-path and angular differences between the two beams are reduced at the wavelength level. Herein, we propose a unique beam combiner for space interferometers that records the spectrally resolved interferometric fringes using the densified pupil spectroscopic technique. As the detector plane is optically conjugated to a plane, on which the two beams interfere, we can directly measure the relative phase difference between the two beams. Additionally, when an object within the field of view is obtained with a modest signal-to-noise ratio, we can extract the true complex amplitude from a continuous broadband fringe (i.e., one exposure measurement), without scanning a delay line and chopping interferometry. We discovered that this spectral imaging method is validated for observing the solar system objects by simulating the reflected light from Europa with a small stellar interferometer. However, because the structure of the object spectrum may cause a systematic error in the measurement, this method may be limited in extracting the true complex amplitude for other astronomical objects. Applying this spectral imaging method to general astrophysics will facilitate further research. The beam combiner and spectral imaging method are applied to a formation flying stellar interferometer with multiple small satellites in a Sun-synchronous orbit, named Space Experiment of InfraRed Interferometric Observation Satellite (SEIRIOS), for observation of the solar system objects in visible and near-infrared. We present an overview of SEIRIOS and the optimized optical design for a limited-volume spacecraft.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Taro Matsuo, Satoshi Ikari, Hirotaka Kondo, Sho Ishiwata, Shinichi Nakasuka, and Tomoyasu Yamamuro "High spatial resolution spectral imaging method for space interferometers and its application to formation flying small satellites," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 8(1), 015001 (4 February 2022). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.8.1.015001
Received: 7 September 2021; Accepted: 14 January 2022; Published: 4 February 2022
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CITATIONS
Cited by 3 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Interferometers

Sensors

Imaging spectroscopy

Visibility

Satellites

Spatial resolution

Interferometry

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