22 research outputs found
The Thermal Hogan - A Means of Surviving the Lunar Night
document describes the Thermal Hogan, a new shelter concept that would be used on the Moon to moderate the extreme nighttime temperatures, allowing survival of equipment with minimal heater power. It is lightweight, has few mechanical parts, and would be relatively easy to deploy on the Moon. The Lunar Hogan has two parts: an insulated shelter and a thermal mass. The shelter is constructed of multilayer insulation (MLI) draped over a structural framework. Entry and egress are accomplished either by raising the structure or via a door constructed of the same MLI material as the shelter. The thermal mass can be manufactured from locally available materials, either by piling substantially sized rocks to a depth of 0.25 meter, or by filling a 0.25-meter-deep conductive honeycomb-like structure with lunar dust. For ease of transport, the structural framework and honeycomb can be collapsible. The door can be opened by pushing on it in either direction. Gravity would cause it to close and it could be sealed via magnetic strips on the doorframe
Optical and Near-IR Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) in the 2020s
Optical and near-IR Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors, or MKIDs, are
superconducting photon counting detectors capable of measuring the energy and
arrival time of individual OIR photons without read noise or dark current. In
this whitepaper we will discuss the current status of OIR MKIDs and MKID-based
instruments.Comment: Astro2020 APC Whitepaper. 16 pages, 10 figure
The MKID Exoplanet Camera for Subaru SCExAO
We present the MKID Exoplanet Camera (MEC), a z through J band (800 - 1400
nm) integral field spectrograph located behind The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme
Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) at the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea that utilizes
Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) as the enabling technology for
high contrast imaging. MEC is the first permanently deployed near-infrared MKID
instrument and is designed to operate both as an IFU, and as a focal plane
wavefront sensor in a multi-kHz feedback loop with SCExAO. The read noise free,
fast time domain information attainable by MKIDs allows for the direct probing
of fast speckle fluctuations that currently limit the performance of most high
contrast imaging systems on the ground and will help MEC achieve its ultimate
goal of reaching contrasts of at 2. Here we outline the
instrument details of MEC including the hardware, firmware, and data reduction
and analysis pipeline. We then discuss MEC's current on-sky performance and end
with future upgrades and plans.Comment: To be published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the
Pacifi
MKID Exoplanet Camera for Subaru SCExAO
We present the MKID Exoplanet Camera (MEC), a z through J band (800–1400 nm) integral field spectrograph located behind The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) at the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea that utilizes Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) as the enabling technology for high contrast imaging. MEC is the first permanently deployed near-infrared MKID instrument and is designed to operate both as an IFU, and as a focal plane wavefront sensor in a multi-kHz feedback loop with SCExAO. The read noise free, fast time domain information attainable by MKIDs allows for the direct probing of fast speckle fluctuations that currently limit the performance of most high contrast imaging systems on the ground and will help MEC achieve its ultimate goal of reaching contrasts of 10⁻⁷ at 2 λ/D. Here we outline the instrument details of MEC including the hardware, firmware, and data reduction and analysis pipeline. We then discuss MEC's current on-sky performance and end with future upgrades and plans