Progress at the starshade testbed at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems: comparisons with computer simulations

Rocco Samuele; Rupal Varshneya; Tim P. Johnson; Adam M. F. Johnson; Tiffany Glassman

doi:10.1117/12.856334

10 August 2010 Progress at the starshade testbed at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems: comparisons with computer simulations

Rocco Samuele, Rupal Varshneya, Tim P. Johnson, Adam M. F. Johnson, Tiffany Glassman

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7731, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 773151 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856334
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We report on progress at the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) starshade testbed. The starshade testbed is a 42.8 meter vacuum chamber that replicates the Fresnel number of an equivalent full-scale starshade mission, namely the flagship New Worlds Observer (NWO) configuration. This paper reports on recent upgrades to the testbed and comparisons of previously published experimental results with computer simulations - which show encouraging agreement to within a factor of 1.5. We also report on a new generation of sub-scale starshades that for the first time allow us to exactly match the Fresnel number of a full-scale mission.

Citation Download Citation

Rocco Samuele, Rupal Varshneya, Tim P. Johnson, Adam M. F. Johnson, and Tiffany Glassman "Progress at the starshade testbed at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems: comparisons with computer simulations", Proc. SPIE 7731, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 773151 (10 August 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856334

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