Description of the StarLight mission and spacecraft concept

Author

Deininger, William D. ; Weiss, Mike A. ; Wiemer, Doug J. ; Hoffman, Charlie N. ; Cleven, G. Curt ; Patel, Keyur C. ; Linfield, Roger P. ; Livesay, Leslie L.

Author_Institution

Ball Aerosp. & Technol. Corp., Boulder, CO, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Abstract

StarLight, conceived as the third NASA New Millennium Program space technology mission (ST3) and now part of the Planet Finder Program within the NASA Origins Theme, is focused on validation of key technologies for future separated spacecraft interferometers, such as Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and the Micro-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission (MAXIM). The main technologies to be demonstrated by StarLight are precision formation flying and separated spacecraft interferometry. This mission uses two spacecraft, launched together into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit on a Delta 2925, to validate these technologies. Launch is planned for September 2005. After on-orbit checkout, the spacecraft separate and are maintained within a range of 40 m to 1000 m. The formation flying sensors and control capabilities are validated over a 3 month period followed by Combiner-mode and separated spacecraft interferometry operations. This paper describes the mission concept, the instrument complement, and the two spacecraft in more detail

Keywords

X-ray imaging; aerospace computing; astronomical telescopes; attitude control; extrasolar planets; light interferometers; space research; space vehicle electronics; space vehicles; Combiner-mode; Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit; Micro-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission; NASA Origins Theme; Planet Finder Program; StarLight mission; Terrestrial Planet Finder; attitude control; bus subsystems; command and data handling; control capabilitie; extrasolar planets; modular avionics; on-orbit checkout; precision formation flying; separated spacecraft interferometers; spacecraft concept; technology payloads; telescope array; Instruments; Interferometers; NASA; Optical interferometry; Payloads; Planets; Space technology; Space vehicles; Telescopes; X-ray imaging;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2001, IEEE Proceedings.

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6599-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2001.931709

Filename

931709