End-to-end numerical modeling of the Roman Space Telescope coronagraph

The Roman Space Telescope will have the first advanced coronagraph in space, with deformable mirrors for wavefront control, low-order wavefront sensing and maintenance, and a photon-counting detector. It is expected to be able to detect and characterize mature, giant exoplanets in reflected visible light. Over the past decade the performance of the coronagraph in its flight environment has been simulated with increasingly detailed diffraction and structural/thermal finite element modeling. With the instrument now being integrated in preparation for launch within the next few years, the present state of the end-to-end modeling is described, including the measured flight components such as deformable mirrors. The coronagraphic modes are thoroughly described, including characteristics most readily derived from modeling. The methods for diffraction propagation, wavefront control, and structural and thermal finite-element modeling are detailed. The techniques and procedures developed for the instrument will serve as a foundation for future coronagraphic missions such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory.Comment: 113 pages, 85 figures, to be published in SPIE Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and System

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) Mission Concept Study Final Report

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, has been designed to be the Great Observatory of the 2030s. For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable an affordable space-based telescope mission capable of discovering and characterizing Earthlike planets orbiting nearby bright sunlike stars in order to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures. Such a mission can also be equipped with instrumentation that will enable broad and exciting general astrophysics and planetary science not possible from current or planned facilities. HabEx is a space telescope with unique imaging and multi-object spectroscopic capabilities at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near-IR. These capabilities allow for a broad suite of compelling science that cuts across the entire NASA astrophysics portfolio. HabEx has three primary science goals: (1) Seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (2) Map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (3) Enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own solar system to external galaxies by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. This Great Observatory science will be selected through a competed GO program, and will account for about 50% of the HabEx primary mission. The preferred HabEx architecture is a 4m, monolithic, off-axis telescope that is diffraction-limited at 0.4 microns and is in an L2 orbit. HabEx employs two starlight suppression systems: a coronagraph and a starshade, each with their own dedicated instrument

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) Mission Concept Study Final Report

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, has been designed to be the Great Observatory of the 2030s. For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable an affordable space-based telescope mission capable of discovering and characterizing Earthlike planets orbiting nearby bright sunlike stars in order to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures. Such a mission can also be equipped with instrumentation that will enable broad and exciting general astrophysics and planetary science not possible from current or planned facilities. HabEx is a space telescope with unique imaging and multi-object spectroscopic capabilities at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near-IR. These capabilities allow for a broad suite of compelling science that cuts across the entire NASA astrophysics portfolio. HabEx has three primary science goals: (1) Seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (2) Map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (3) Enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own solar system to external galaxies by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. This Great Observatory science will be selected through a competed GO program, and will account for about 50% of the HabEx primary mission. The preferred HabEx architecture is a 4m, monolithic, off-axis telescope that is diffraction-limited at 0.4 microns and is in an L2 orbit. HabEx employs two starlight suppression systems: a coronagraph and a starshade, each with their own dedicated instrument.Comment: Full report: 498 pages. Executive Summary: 14 pages. More information about HabEx can be found here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/habex

High Precision Proper Motions in Globular Star Clusters using Parallel Deconvolution of Hubble Space Telescope Images

It has been suggested that globular star clusters may host a black hole with intermediate mass (~ a few × 1000 M_sun ) or a collection of low mass (~ 10 M_sun ) black holes at their centre. High velocity dispersion in the cluster core and the presence of the ultra-luminous X-ray sources at the cluster\u27s centre are thought to be signatures of black holes. However, only indirect and/or inconclusive evidences exists for the presence of black hole in the core of globular clusters. Stars passing very close to the black hole in a cluster can, under certain circumstances, be accelerated to a much higher velocity than the cluster dispersion. Such high proper motion of the stars in the sphere of influence of the black hole can be detected using multi-epoch images of globular cluster separated by reasonable baseline. The variation in proper motion dispersion with radial distance from the cluster centre can give an indication of the presence (or absence) of a central black hole. To resolve the stars in the crowded core of globular clusters, and thus to determine precise proper motions, a sub-sampled deconvolution technique was developed. An automated simulation pipeline was also developed to generate realistic, multi-epoch, simulated globular star cluster images for the Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 and ACS instruments. Simulations showed that the technique, which takes account of the point-spread function spatial variation, can provide better star detection and recovers the resolution lost to aberrations and poor sampling. To speed up the data processing pipeline, a parallel version of the sub-sampled deconvolution was implemented. In addition, World Coordinate transformation, and Monte Carlo completeness testing routines, were also parallelized. We used the Python programming language and PyRAF tasks for the implementation. The cross-platform nature of Python makes the code portable on multiple computer platforms. Proper motion measurements and internal proper motion dispersion determination was carried out for three Galactic globular clusters - M71, NGC 6293, and M15. For globular cluster M71, the central proper motion dispersion profile is almost flat from 3 to 18 from the cluster centre. This could be interpreted as the absence of a central black hole in M71. Similar results were also reached for the southern hemisphere cluster NGC 6293, which showed flat central proper motion dispersion profile from 0.8 to 18 from the cluster centre. For both these clusters, multi-epoch images from the Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 detector were used. Multi-epoch images from two different detectors (WFPC2 and ACS WFC) were used to determine the stellar proper motions in the core collapsed globular cluster M15, on a 12 year baseline. M15 did show a gradual increase in proper motion dispersion towards the inner cluster core

Planeamiento estratégico para la Región Ica al 2025

El plan estratégico para la región Ica tiene como objetivo fundamental establecer las estrategias que le permitan a Ica llegar a ser una de las primeras regiones competitivas del país, para lograr a corto plazo ser una región integrada social y económicamente, orientada a mejorar constantemente la calidad de vida de su población, para superar plenamente los problemas hídricos que padece en la actualidad, contando con operadores logísticos de primer nivel que le permitan satisfacer las necesidades del sector productivo, contribuyendo a la competitividad de la economía y a la eficiencia de la infraestructura de transporte existente, en favor de la región misma y de las regiones limítrofes, mediante una gestión pública eficiente y confiable, para atraer inversión productiva nacional y extranjera a todo nivel, replanteando las actividades económicas tradicionales y fomentando la formación de clústeres. Para la realización del presente estudio se empleó el modelo de Planeamiento Estratégico elaborado por el profesor D'Alessio. Luego del análisis de la situación actual de la región y de una evaluación externa e interna, basados en la visión proyectada al año 2025 y se establecieron cinco Objetivos de Largo Plazo (OLP). Inmediatamente, a partir de la utilización de la matriz de Fortalezas, Oportunidades, Debilidades y Amenazas (FODA) se generaron 13 estrategias, las cuales pasaron por diversos filtros, matrices que han servido para evaluar estas estrategias, sintetizadas finalmente en ocho estrategias generales. Para la implementación estratégica se han planteado 18 Objetivos de Corto Plazo (OCP) y 23 políticas de acción que permitirán a la región lograr los OLP y alcanzar la visión planteada. Finalmente se puede establecer que la región Ica tiene mucho potencial para consolidar su posición como uno de los líderes del Indice Competitividad Regional de CENTRUM Católica para el 2025, por lo que se considera que para esa fecha, Ica deberá ser la región más competitiva del país, solo por debajo de Lima.TesisThe strategic plan for the region of Ica mainly aims at establishing the strategies that shall allow it to be one of the top competitive regions in the country and lead it to reach integrity - socially and economically speaking- in the short term. This means, it shall be oriented to constantly improve the quality of life of its population by fully overcoming the hydric problems it is currently suffering from and using cutting edge logistic operators allowing it to meet the needs of the productive sector. Therefore, all this shall contribute to the competitiveness of the economy and the efficiency of the transport infrastructure in favour of the region and its surroundings. What is more, this shall be reached through an efficient and confident public administration to attract domestic and international productive investment at all levels, reformulating the traditional economic activities and promoting the creation of clusters. Furthermore, the Strategic Planning model by professor D’Alessio was used to carry out this study. After analysing the current situation of the region as well as its external and internal assessment, five Long Term Objectives (LTO) were established, based on the view projected for 2025. Immediately after, 13 strategies were determined by using the SWOT matrix, all of which passed through different filters. Such process served to assess those options that were, therefore, synthetized in eight general strategies. As a result, 18 Short Term Objectives (STO) and 23 action policies have been planned for the strategic implementation, this shall allow the region to reach the LTO´s and the planned view. Finally, we can say that the region of Ica has got a lot of potential to consolidate itself as one of the leaders of the Regional Competitive Index of CENTRUM Catolica for 2025. All in all, by that time, Ica will be the most competitive region in the country right after Lima.xx, 172 h. : il. ; 30 c

Nanoradian Ground-Based Astrometry, Optical Navigation, and Artificial Reference Stars

Spacecraft carrying optical communication lasers can be treated as artificial stars, whose relative astrometry to Gaia reference stars provides spacecraft positions in the plane-of-sky for optical navigation. To be comparable to current Deep Space Network delta-Differential One-way Ranging measurements, thus sufficient for navigation, nanoradian optical astrometry is required. Here we describe our error budget, techniques for achieving nanoradian level ground-base astrometry, and preliminary results from a 1 m telescope. We discuss also how these spacecraft may serve as artificial reference stars for adaptive optics, high precision astrometry to detect exoplanets, and tying reference frames defined by radio and optical measurements