The new worlds observer: A mission for high-resolution spectroscopy of extra-solar terrestrial planets

Willard L. Simmons; Webster C. Cash; Sara Seager; Erik Wilkinson; N. Jeremy Kasdin; Robert J. Vanderbei; Naomi Chow; Erica Gralla; Johanna Kleingeld

doi:10.1117/12.552069

The new worlds observer: A mission for high-resolution spectroscopy of extra-solar terrestrial planets

Willard L. Simmons, Webster C. Cash, Sara Seager, Erik Wilkinson, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Robert J. Vanderbei, Naomi Chow, Erica Gralla, Johanna Kleingeld

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The New Worlds Observer (NWO) is a proposed space mission to provide high resolution spectroscopy from the far UV to the near IR of extra-solar terrestrial sized planets. The design of NWO is based on the concept of a large, space-based, pinhole camera made up of two spacecraft flying in formation. The first spacecraft is a large, thin occulting shield (perhaps hundreds of meters in diameter) with a shaped "pinhole" aperture about 10m in diameter. The second spacecraft is a conventional-quality space telescope (possibly with a 10m primary mirror) which "flies" through the pinhole image of the planetary system to observe the extra-solar planets free from stellar background. In this paper we describe the design of the two spacecraft system. In particular, the shaped-pinhole design utilizes the shaped-pupil coronagraph pioneered for the Terrestrial Planet Finder. In this paper we describe some of the NWO's technology challenges and science opportunities. Additionally, we describe an extension of the design to provide 100km resolution images of extra-solar planets.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1634-1645
Number of pages	12
Journal	Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume	5487
Issue number	PART 3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552069
State	Published - 2004
Event	Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Space Telecopes - Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: Jun 21 2004 → Jun 25 2004

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Condensed Matter Physics
Computer Science Applications
Applied Mathematics
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Keywords

Astronomy
Exo-planets
Extra-solar planets
Formation flying spacecraft
Pinhole camera
Planet finding
Shaped-pupil coronagraph
Space observatories
Spectroscopy

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Simmons, W. L., Cash, W. C., Seager, S., Wilkinson, E., Kasdin, N. J., Vanderbei, R. J., Chow, N., Gralla, E., & Kleingeld, J. (2004). The new worlds observer: A mission for high-resolution spectroscopy of extra-solar terrestrial planets. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 5487(PART 3), 1634-1645. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552069

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AB - The New Worlds Observer (NWO) is a proposed space mission to provide high resolution spectroscopy from the far UV to the near IR of extra-solar terrestrial sized planets. The design of NWO is based on the concept of a large, space-based, pinhole camera made up of two spacecraft flying in formation. The first spacecraft is a large, thin occulting shield (perhaps hundreds of meters in diameter) with a shaped "pinhole" aperture about 10m in diameter. The second spacecraft is a conventional-quality space telescope (possibly with a 10m primary mirror) which "flies" through the pinhole image of the planetary system to observe the extra-solar planets free from stellar background. In this paper we describe the design of the two spacecraft system. In particular, the shaped-pinhole design utilizes the shaped-pupil coronagraph pioneered for the Terrestrial Planet Finder. In this paper we describe some of the NWO's technology challenges and science opportunities. Additionally, we describe an extension of the design to provide 100km resolution images of extra-solar planets.

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The new worlds observer: A mission for high-resolution spectroscopy of extra-solar terrestrial planets

Abstract

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Keywords

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