Workshop on Advanced Technologies for Planetary Instruments, part 1

This meeting was conceived in response to new challenges facing NASA's robotic solar system exploration program. This volume contains papers presented at the Workshop on Advanced Technologies for Planetary Instruments on 28-30 Apr. 1993. This meeting was conceived in response to new challenges facing NASA's robotic solar system exploration program. Over the past several years, SDIO has sponsored a significant technology development program aimed, in part, at the production of instruments with these characteristics. This workshop provided an opportunity for specialists from the planetary science and DoD communities to establish contacts, to explore common technical ground in an open forum, and more specifically, to discuss the applicability of SDIO's technology base to planetary science instruments

A flux calibration method for remote sensing satellites using stars

Star surveys and model analyses show that many stars have absolute stable fluxes as good as 3% in 0.3-35{\mu}m wavebands and about 1% in the visible wavebands. The relative flux calibrations between stars are better than 0.2%. Some stars have extremely stable fluxes and can be used as long term flux calibration sources. Stellar brightness is several orders of magnitude lower than most ground objects while the stars do not usually appear in remote sensing cameras, which makes the stars inappropriate for being calibration sources. The calibration method using stars discussed in this paper is through a mini-camera attached to remote sensing satellite. The mini-camera works at similar wavebands as the remote sensing cameras and it can observe the stars and the ground objects alternatively. High signal-to-noise ratio is achieved for the relatively faint stars through longer exposure time. Simultaneous precise cross-calibration is obtained as the mini-camera and remote sensing cameras look at the ground objects at the same time. The fluxes from the stars used as calibration standards are transferred to the remote sensing cameras through this procedure. Analysis shows that a 2% accurate calibration is possible.Comment: 12 page

QWIPs, SLS, Landsat and the International Space Station

In 1988 DARPA provided funding to NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center to support the development of GaAs Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP). The goal was to make a single element photodetector that might be expandable to a two-dimensional array format. Ultimately, this led to the development of a 128 x 128 element array in collaboration with AT&T Bell Labs and Rockwell Science Center in 1990. We continued to develop numerous generations of QWIP arrays most recently resulting in the multi-QWIP focal plane for the NASA-US Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat 8 mission launched in 2013 and a similar instrument on the Landsat 9 mission to be launched in 2020. Toward the end of the Landsat 8 QWIP-based Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instrument the potential of the newly developed Strained Layer Superlattice (SLS) detector array technology became of great interest to NASA for three primary reasons: 1) higher operating temperature; 2) broad spectral response and; 3) higher sensitivity. We have collaborated extensively with QmagiQ, LLC and Northwestern University to further pursue and advance the SLS technology ever since we started back in 2012. In December of 2018 we launched the first SLS-based IR camera system to the International Space Station on board the Robotic Refueling Mission #3 (RRM3). This paper will describe the evolution of QWIP technology leading to the current development of SLS-based imaging systems at the Goddard Space Flight Center over the past 30 years

The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) is the fourth and final facility in the Great Observatories Program, joining Hubble Space Telescope (1990), the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (1991–2000), and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (1999). Spitzer, with a sensitivity that is almost three orders of magnitude greater than that of any previous ground-based and space-based infrared observatory, is expected to revolutionize our understanding of the creation of the universe, the formation and evolution of primitive galaxies, the origin of stars and planets, and the chemical evolution of the universe. This review presents a brief overview of the scientific objectives and history of infrared astronomy. We discuss Spitzer's expected role in infrared astronomy for the new millennium. We describe pertinent details of the design, construction, launch, in-orbit checkout, and operations of the observatory and summarize some science highlights from the first two and a half years of Spitzer operations. More information about Spitzer can be found at http://spitzer.caltech.edu/

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance

The all sky surveys done by the Palomar Observatory Schmidt, the European Southern Observatory Schmidt, and the United Kingdom Schmidt, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite and the 2 Micron All Sky Survey have proven to be extremely useful tools for astronomy with value that lasts for decades. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is mapping the whole sky following its launch on 14 December 2009. WISE began surveying the sky on 14 Jan 2010 and completed its first full coverage of the sky on July 17. The survey will continue to cover the sky a second time until the cryogen is exhausted (anticipated in November 2010). WISE is achieving 5 sigma point source sensitivities better than 0.08, 0.11, 1 and 6 mJy in unconfused regions on the ecliptic in bands centered at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns. Sensitivity improves toward the ecliptic poles due to denser coverage and lower zodiacal background. The angular resolution is 6.1, 6.4, 6.5 and 12.0 arc-seconds at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns, and the astrometric precision for high SNR sources is better than 0.15 arc-seconds.Comment: 22 pages with 19 included figures. Updated to better match the accepted version in the A

Demonstrating high-precision photometry with a CubeSat: ASTERIA observations of 55 Cancri e

ASTERIA (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research In Astrophysics) is a 6U CubeSat space telescope (10 cm x 20 cm x 30 cm, 10 kg). ASTERIA's primary mission objective was demonstrating two key technologies for reducing systematic noise in photometric observations: high-precision pointing control and high-stabilty thermal control. ASTERIA demonstrated 0.5 arcsecond RMS pointing stability and $\pm$10 milliKelvin thermal control of its camera payload during its primary mission, a significant improvement in pointing and thermal performance compared to other spacecraft in ASTERIA's size and mass class. ASTERIA launched in August 2017 and deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) November 2017. During the prime mission (November 2017 -- February 2018) and the first extended mission that followed (March 2018 - May 2018), ASTERIA conducted opportunistic science observations which included collection of photometric data on 55 Cancri, a nearby exoplanetary system with a super-Earth transiting planet. The 55 Cancri data were reduced using a custom pipeline to correct CMOS detector column-dependent gain variations. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach was used to simultaneously detrend the photometry using a simple baseline model and fit a transit model. ASTERIA made a marginal detection of the known transiting exoplanet 55 Cancri e ($\sim2$~\Rearth), measuring a transit depth of $374\pm170$ ppm. This is the first detection of an exoplanet transit by a CubeSat. The successful detection of super-Earth 55 Cancri e demonstrates that small, inexpensive spacecraft can deliver high-precision photometric measurements.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. Accepted in A

Electron multiplication CCD detector technology advancement for the WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph

The WFIRST-AFTA (Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Asset) is a NASA space observatory. It will host two major astronomical instruments: a wide-field imager (WFI) to search for dark energy and carry out wide field near infrared (NIR) surveys, and a coronagraph instrument (CGI) to image and spectrally characterize extrasolar planets. In this paper, we discuss the work that has been carried out at JPL in advancing Electron Multiplying CCD (EMCCD) technology to higher flight maturity, with the goal of reaching a NASA technology readiness level of 6 (TRL-6) by early-to-mid 2016. The EMCCD has been baselined for both the coronagraph's imager and integral field spectrograph (IFS) based on its sub-electron noise performance at extremely low flux levels - the regime where the AFTA CGI will operate. We present results from a study that fully characterizes the beginning of life performance of the EMCCD. We also discuss, and present initial results from, a recent radiation test campaign that was designed and carried out to mimic the conditions of the WFIRST-AFTA space environment in an L2 orbit, where we sought to assess the sensor's end of life performance, particularly degradation of its charge transfer efficiency, in addition to other parameters such as dark current, electron multiplication gain, clock induced charge and read noise

The future of Earth observation in hydrology

In just the past 5 years, the field of Earth observation has progressed beyond the offerings of conventional space-agency-based platforms to include a plethora of sensing opportunities afforded by CubeSats, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and smartphone technologies that are being embraced by both for-profit companies and individual researchers. Over the previous decades, space agency efforts have brought forth well-known and immensely useful satellites such as the Landsat series and the Gravity Research and Climate Experiment (GRACE) system, with costs typically of the order of 1 billion dollars per satellite and with concept-to-launch timelines of the order of 2 decades (for new missions). More recently, the proliferation of smart-phones has helped to miniaturize sensors and energy requirements, facilitating advances in the use of CubeSats that can be launched by the dozens, while providing ultra-high (3-5 m) resolution sensing of the Earth on a daily basis. Start-up companies that did not exist a decade ago now operate more satellites in orbit than any space agency, and at costs that are a mere fraction of traditional satellite missions. With these advances come new space-borne measurements, such as real-time high-definition video for tracking air pollution, storm-cell development, flood propagation, precipitation monitoring, or even for constructing digital surfaces using structure-from-motion techniques. Closer to the surface, measurements from small unmanned drones and tethered balloons have mapped snow depths, floods, and estimated evaporation at sub-metre resolutions, pushing back on spatio-temporal constraints and delivering new process insights. At ground level, precipitation has been measured using signal attenuation between antennae mounted on cell phone towers, while the proliferation of mobile devices has enabled citizen scientists to catalogue photos of environmental conditions, estimate daily average temperatures from battery state, and sense other hydrologically important variables such as channel depths using commercially available wireless devices. Global internet access is being pursued via high-altitude balloons, solar planes, and hundreds of planned satellite launches, providing a means to exploit the "internet of things" as an entirely new measurement domain. Such global access will enable real-time collection of data from billions of smartphones or from remote research platforms. This future will produce petabytes of data that can only be accessed via cloud storage and will require new analytical approaches to interpret. The extent to which today's hydrologic models can usefully ingest such massive data volumes is unclear. Nor is it clear whether this deluge of data will be usefully exploited, either because the measurements are superfluous, inconsistent, not accurate enough, or simply because we lack the capacity to process and analyse them. What is apparent is that the tools and techniques afforded by this array of novel and game-changing sensing platforms present our community with a unique opportunity to develop new insights that advance fundamental aspects of the hydrological sciences. To accomplish this will require more than just an application of the technology: in some cases, it will demand a radical rethink on how we utilize and exploit these new observing systems