Space interferometer mission (SIM) instrument design concepts

SIM is a 12 meter baseline interferometer to be built as part of the NASA Origins program, designed to fly in space and provide high precision astrometry measurements of astronomical objects. SIM will provide angular measurements three orders of magnitude more precise than current space or ground based sensors, allowing the indirect detection of Earth-like planets around neighboring stars. The SIM mission will also include the ability to synthesize images by varying the interferometer baseline lengths and will demonstrate a nulling beam combiner as a technology pathfinder for future missions. A team at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space (LMMS) in Sunnyvale, CA has been chosen by JPL to enter a partnership to design and build the SIIM instrument. This paper describes the overall LMMS SIM instrument concept and its unique features, including the full aperture laser metrology approach for high precision metrology