1 00:00:00,550 --> 00:00:01,950 - [Brendan] Hello, everyone. 2 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:05,490 So I'm the Deputy Program Chief Technologist 3 00:00:05,490 --> 00:00:08,280 for the Exoplanet Exploration Program. 4 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:11,950 And on behalf of the program office technology team, 5 00:00:11,950 --> 00:00:15,390 which includes Nich Siegler, and Pim Chen, 6 00:00:15,390 --> 00:00:16,860 I'm gonna give you an update 7 00:00:16,860 --> 00:00:21,090 on our various technology activities 8 00:00:21,090 --> 00:00:24,240 that the program office manages. 9 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:29,110 So as you can see, we have a pretty wide range of activities 10 00:00:29,110 --> 00:00:31,010 that we're either participating in 11 00:00:31,010 --> 00:00:34,160 or actively funding and managing. 12 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:39,020 And I'm gonna focus on kind of the most exciting advances 13 00:00:39,020 --> 00:00:40,760 that have happened in the last six months 14 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:45,760 since you last heard our update at the ExoPAG in Honolulu. 15 00:00:47,900 --> 00:00:50,430 So I'm just gonna dive right in 16 00:00:51,290 --> 00:00:55,883 the Strategic Astrophysics Technology grant program. 17 00:00:56,910 --> 00:00:58,670 We manage those awards, 18 00:00:58,670 --> 00:01:01,820 make sure the PIs are are progressing 19 00:01:01,820 --> 00:01:05,133 and help get them what they need to be successful. 20 00:01:06,870 --> 00:01:10,350 So we have four active awards that are investigating 21 00:01:10,350 --> 00:01:13,253 new coronagraph masks and architectures. 22 00:01:14,150 --> 00:01:19,150 These are all attempting to demonstrate very deep contrast 23 00:01:19,290 --> 00:01:23,390 down to the level required to detect terrestrial exoplanets 24 00:01:23,390 --> 00:01:27,740 with a direct imaging mission, such as HabEx, or LUVOIR. 25 00:01:27,740 --> 00:01:31,050 And these are gonna make demonstrations in the laboratory 26 00:01:31,050 --> 00:01:32,793 of these deep contrasts. 27 00:01:33,730 --> 00:01:38,080 And I think, exciting update in this area is that 28 00:01:39,110 --> 00:01:43,078 despite that most of our labs are shut down, 29 00:01:43,078 --> 00:01:46,343 or very short handed at the very least, 30 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:51,180 we've been able to actually put one of these experiments 31 00:01:51,180 --> 00:01:53,650 into the vacuum testbed at JPL 32 00:01:53,650 --> 00:01:55,860 and once that's installed in the testbed 33 00:01:55,860 --> 00:01:59,130 can be entirely remotely operated. 34 00:01:59,130 --> 00:02:00,730 So that's great. 35 00:02:00,730 --> 00:02:04,750 That's the Rus Belikov PIAACMC experiment, 36 00:02:04,750 --> 00:02:07,723 which we'll be getting, 37 00:02:08,770 --> 00:02:11,200 starting from the experiments over the summer, 38 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,493 and we're expecting exciting results to come out of that. 39 00:02:19,110 --> 00:02:20,750 As well as investigating 40 00:02:20,750 --> 00:02:24,530 new types of cryptograph masks architectures. 41 00:02:24,530 --> 00:02:28,810 A very important part of achieving deep contrasts 42 00:02:28,810 --> 00:02:32,120 on space missions is in the wavefront control 43 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,980 the active sensing control of wavefront errors 44 00:02:35,980 --> 00:02:38,710 in the coronagraph system, and there's a number of awards 45 00:02:38,710 --> 00:02:42,980 that are investigating techniques for optimizing 46 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:45,833 and improving this. 47 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:52,160 One new award that just went out last year 48 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,550 and is kicking off right now went to "Dimitri My Way." 49 00:02:55,550 --> 00:02:59,900 It's a exciting idea for coupling the specter graph 50 00:02:59,900 --> 00:03:03,160 to coronagraph basically investigating what happens 51 00:03:05,135 --> 00:03:06,750 if you are know where a planet is 52 00:03:06,750 --> 00:03:09,170 and you throw all your control authority 53 00:03:09,170 --> 00:03:13,493 into a very small region of the focal plane. 54 00:03:13,493 --> 00:03:16,530 What can you do in terms of improving your bandwidth 55 00:03:16,530 --> 00:03:20,600 and optimizing spectroscopy of that one part of the field. 56 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:23,973 So we're excited to see that we've progressed. 57 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:30,330 A very important award that's just wrapping up right now 58 00:03:30,330 --> 00:03:34,300 brought to our attention the effects of 59 00:03:34,300 --> 00:03:37,390 polarization operation on choreography, 60 00:03:37,390 --> 00:03:39,670 has already had a pretty big impact 61 00:03:39,670 --> 00:03:43,870 on the LOUVER and HabEx Final Reports. 62 00:03:43,870 --> 00:03:47,860 And final report for this particular SAT effort 63 00:03:47,860 --> 00:03:51,300 is now being written up and we hope to have that public 64 00:03:51,300 --> 00:03:52,750 in the next few months. 65 00:03:52,750 --> 00:03:54,900 So keep an eye out for that on our website. 66 00:03:56,450 --> 00:04:01,450 We've also been investigating new detector technologies, 67 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:03,390 of course, when we're trying 68 00:04:03,390 --> 00:04:07,760 to look for terrestrial exoplanets, every photon 69 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,730 for a magnitude 30 sources extremely valuable. 70 00:04:10,730 --> 00:04:13,750 So, photon counting detectors is an area 71 00:04:13,750 --> 00:04:16,020 where we're extremely interested in. 72 00:04:16,020 --> 00:04:19,130 But a new area, for us at least, 73 00:04:19,130 --> 00:04:22,100 is in ultra stability in the infrared. 74 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:25,840 So this is technology that would enable 75 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:29,390 something like an origin space telescope to carry out 76 00:04:29,390 --> 00:04:31,710 highly precise transit spectroscopy. 77 00:04:31,710 --> 00:04:35,390 So an award that was made last year to Johannes goon 78 00:04:35,390 --> 00:04:38,530 at Johns Hopkins is investigating a technique 79 00:04:38,530 --> 00:04:42,430 for achieving five parts per million stability 80 00:04:42,430 --> 00:04:45,350 to enable new types of transit science. 81 00:04:45,350 --> 00:04:46,853 So that's quite exciting. 82 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:50,320 We've also just started to venture 83 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:54,080 to technology for extreme position, radial velocity. 84 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:58,280 Again, it's a new word to Steph Leifer at JPL and her team 85 00:04:59,380 --> 00:05:03,730 is to look at a new type of optical analog 86 00:05:03,730 --> 00:05:06,240 to perform pre frequency calibration. 87 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,900 And the exciting thing about this particular award 88 00:05:09,900 --> 00:05:12,450 is that it's scalable to space missions. 89 00:05:12,450 --> 00:05:17,290 it's small enough that you could imagine actually 90 00:05:17,290 --> 00:05:20,510 putting it on a on a spacecraft. 91 00:05:20,510 --> 00:05:23,850 So that award just kicked off as well. 92 00:05:23,850 --> 00:05:25,620 And we're excited to see what that could do. 93 00:05:25,620 --> 00:05:29,510 So I encourage you all the white papers 94 00:05:29,510 --> 00:05:34,390 that describe the efforts that the PI's are undertaking 95 00:05:34,390 --> 00:05:36,810 as well as final reports when the efforts are complete 96 00:05:36,810 --> 00:05:39,370 are all on our website, which you can find here on 97 00:05:39,370 --> 00:05:41,680 exoplanets.nasa.gov. 98 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:43,570 So I encourage you to take a look at that 99 00:05:43,570 --> 00:05:45,570 if you're interested in following along. 100 00:05:46,490 --> 00:05:51,150 So partly in support of the SAP investigations, 101 00:05:51,150 --> 00:05:55,420 our program office manages testbed facility 102 00:05:55,420 --> 00:05:57,247 that's physically located at JPL 103 00:05:57,247 --> 00:06:01,170 and is open to SAT or Ortiz. 104 00:06:01,170 --> 00:06:03,790 It's basically several vacuum chambers 105 00:06:03,790 --> 00:06:08,450 and a highly stable optical benches 106 00:06:08,450 --> 00:06:12,303 that can demonstrate extremely deep coronagraph contrast. 107 00:06:13,330 --> 00:06:15,440 So as you've heard over the years, 108 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,470 we've been slowly upgrading this testbed 109 00:06:18,470 --> 00:06:21,710 to enable more and more challenging 110 00:06:21,710 --> 00:06:25,680 types of demonstrations. 111 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:30,350 And one kind of exciting new capability that our testbed has 112 00:06:30,350 --> 00:06:32,760 it's come online in the last six months 113 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:37,650 is a new wavefront sensing system, which lets us measure 114 00:06:37,650 --> 00:06:40,280 the wavefront coming into a coronagraph 115 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:42,930 down to the picometer level. 116 00:06:42,930 --> 00:06:44,830 And so that'll also be part of the facility 117 00:06:44,830 --> 00:06:47,720 that's available to investigators. 118 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:50,660 And I think this will be really powerful 119 00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:53,170 in trying to figure out limiting factors 120 00:06:53,170 --> 00:06:54,993 for various coronagraph techniques. 121 00:06:56,970 --> 00:06:59,280 We're continuing to make upgrades. 122 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:03,690 One very important area in coronagraphy 123 00:07:03,690 --> 00:07:07,560 that we wanna push on is the performance of coronagraphs 124 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:10,340 when the pupil is segmented. 125 00:07:10,340 --> 00:07:12,080 So if the coronagraph is behind 126 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,640 a large segmented Space Telescope, such as LUVOIR, 127 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:17,960 and so we're gonna have pupils 128 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,110 that can simulate that configuration. 129 00:07:20,110 --> 00:07:21,580 And eventually we'll go to look at 130 00:07:21,580 --> 00:07:25,840 dynamic wavefront errors, as well. 131 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:28,110 We're also in the next few months installing 132 00:07:28,110 --> 00:07:32,760 an EMCCD detector for the focal plane, 133 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:36,610 the testbed which will enable low light demonstrations 134 00:07:36,610 --> 00:07:37,970 to be kind of more realistic 135 00:07:37,970 --> 00:07:40,240 for what we'll be expecting on orbit. 136 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:41,440 So that's very exciting. 137 00:07:42,470 --> 00:07:47,310 So speaking of segmented telescope choreography, 138 00:07:47,310 --> 00:07:51,570 another technology development area that we're pursuing 139 00:07:51,570 --> 00:07:53,950 is we're funding in next step is called 140 00:07:53,950 --> 00:07:56,410 the segmented coronagraph design and analysis study. 141 00:07:56,410 --> 00:07:59,130 So the study was kicked off several years ago 142 00:07:59,130 --> 00:08:02,200 when it wasn't even clear if coronagraph could work at all 143 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:06,350 behind a segmented, partially obscured telescope. 144 00:08:06,350 --> 00:08:08,190 And I think we've gotten well 145 00:08:08,190 --> 00:08:09,730 beyond that particular question. 146 00:08:09,730 --> 00:08:13,360 There's a number of candidate designs that can work in now 147 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:14,853 with the static case. 148 00:08:16,683 --> 00:08:19,380 Whereas, specialists focus now 149 00:08:19,380 --> 00:08:24,380 is funding a number of teams to investigate the sensitivity 150 00:08:25,220 --> 00:08:27,790 of the performance of these coronagraphs 151 00:08:27,790 --> 00:08:30,730 when confronted with realistic telescopes aberrations 152 00:08:31,930 --> 00:08:33,526 and instabilities. 153 00:08:33,526 --> 00:08:38,390 And kind of related to that question is to investigate how 154 00:08:38,390 --> 00:08:40,940 the requirements for the performance of the chronograph 155 00:08:40,940 --> 00:08:44,810 would then go back and put requirements on the telescope 156 00:08:44,810 --> 00:08:48,470 and whether or not those are achievable or realistic. 157 00:08:48,470 --> 00:08:53,020 And so, this year, the team is produced 158 00:08:53,020 --> 00:08:56,020 end to end propagation model moving by head and that means 159 00:08:56,020 --> 00:08:58,923 from the telescope all the way to the science focal plane. 160 00:09:01,450 --> 00:09:06,450 The team is also set up collaboration with the segment, 161 00:09:06,770 --> 00:09:11,770 the industry led segmented telescope system studies 162 00:09:12,010 --> 00:09:15,930 that are happening at ball and at Lockheed. 163 00:09:15,930 --> 00:09:19,360 And so that's been very fruitful because they've been 164 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:22,410 spending quite a bit of time over the last several years 165 00:09:22,410 --> 00:09:24,140 creating very realistic models 166 00:09:24,140 --> 00:09:26,950 of how a segmented telescopes would perform in space 167 00:09:26,950 --> 00:09:29,660 and what kind of dynamic aberrations 168 00:09:29,660 --> 00:09:30,790 you could expect from them. 169 00:09:30,790 --> 00:09:35,370 So we're just at the point of connecting the dots there, 170 00:09:35,370 --> 00:09:38,030 these realistic telescope system models 171 00:09:38,030 --> 00:09:40,490 with very realistic coronagraph models 172 00:09:40,490 --> 00:09:43,210 and figuring out how it all plays together. 173 00:09:43,210 --> 00:09:46,763 So stay tuned for more on that this year. 174 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,210 Of course, at the heart of any coronagraph, 175 00:09:52,210 --> 00:09:56,350 that can hope to achieve very deep contrast 176 00:09:56,350 --> 00:09:58,470 required for studying Earth, 177 00:09:58,470 --> 00:10:00,563 like exoplanets is deformable mirror. 178 00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:06,540 There's several technologies for deformable mirrors 179 00:10:06,540 --> 00:10:08,630 that have been advanced over the years 180 00:10:08,630 --> 00:10:10,190 that we've become very familiar with. 181 00:10:10,190 --> 00:10:13,630 But we wanted to take a step back and ask ourselves, 182 00:10:13,630 --> 00:10:16,900 we've identified all the possible candidates 183 00:10:16,900 --> 00:10:18,630 that are out there that might be suitable 184 00:10:18,630 --> 00:10:20,990 for a future exoplanet direct imaging mission. 185 00:10:20,990 --> 00:10:23,520 So our program office has undertaken 186 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,090 what we're calling a Deformable Mirror Survey, 187 00:10:28,090 --> 00:10:31,240 which has assembled a team of subject matter experts 188 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:33,660 which are writing down everything you would want 189 00:10:33,660 --> 00:10:36,050 out of a deformable mirror for space, 190 00:10:36,050 --> 00:10:38,500 and then performing a global fact finding effort. 191 00:10:38,500 --> 00:10:41,950 So looking at what's available already commercially, 192 00:10:41,950 --> 00:10:45,890 and then also to try to identify new technologies 193 00:10:45,890 --> 00:10:48,060 that could potentially mature rapidly enough 194 00:10:48,060 --> 00:10:52,300 to be ready for the 2020s or 2030s. 195 00:10:52,300 --> 00:10:56,500 So, that's underway right now. 196 00:10:56,500 --> 00:10:59,130 The fact finding is ongoing with vendors at the moment 197 00:10:59,130 --> 00:11:02,700 and we hope to have a report out to the public 198 00:11:02,700 --> 00:11:04,350 at the end of this calendar year. 199 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:07,320 I'm not gonna say too much about 200 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:09,820 the Extreme Precision Radio Velocity initiative. 201 00:11:09,820 --> 00:11:11,440 You're gonna hear more about that 202 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,680 from Chen and Scott later on today. 203 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:17,140 And you already heard the exciting announcement 204 00:11:17,140 --> 00:11:19,660 from Doug Hudgens yesterday about 205 00:11:19,660 --> 00:11:22,993 the call for proposals that will be out in August. 206 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:25,350 So just keep an eye on that. 207 00:11:25,350 --> 00:11:26,660 Of course, there'll be a... 208 00:11:26,660 --> 00:11:28,640 There's a technology component in achieving 209 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,870 the level of sensitivity that will be needed 210 00:11:31,870 --> 00:11:33,470 to get down to earth as objects. 211 00:11:37,244 --> 00:11:40,140 The series of talks that we organized called 212 00:11:40,140 --> 00:11:43,100 the Exoplanet Exploration Technology Colloquium Series 213 00:11:43,100 --> 00:11:44,990 has continued over the last few months. 214 00:11:44,990 --> 00:11:48,263 We've had three talks recently. 215 00:11:49,150 --> 00:11:53,810 One of them was related to the issue of telescopes stability 216 00:11:53,810 --> 00:11:57,630 and coronagraph with regards to segment to telescopes, 217 00:11:57,630 --> 00:11:59,460 we had great talks from beyond the body 218 00:11:59,460 --> 00:12:03,083 and Rose $1 per month on that topic. 219 00:12:04,340 --> 00:12:09,340 In May, we actually went beyond the simple colloquium 220 00:12:09,420 --> 00:12:11,760 and actually turned into a half day workshop 221 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:13,700 on the advanced wavefront sensing. 222 00:12:13,700 --> 00:12:18,220 So at that workshop, we presented the results 223 00:12:18,220 --> 00:12:20,940 that we received in our own test beds brought together folks 224 00:12:20,940 --> 00:12:23,820 from Europe, and around North America 225 00:12:23,820 --> 00:12:26,223 to discuss the weightiest. 226 00:12:27,340 --> 00:12:30,590 That was exciting, we had over 100 participants. 227 00:12:30,590 --> 00:12:33,840 We also had a very excellent talk just a few weeks ago 228 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:38,070 on the status of starshade technology, 229 00:12:38,070 --> 00:12:40,303 and that was given by Phil Williams. 230 00:12:41,170 --> 00:12:43,440 I'm gonna actually give you kind of a summary 231 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:46,620 of what he presented and give you a sense 232 00:12:46,620 --> 00:12:48,570 of the very exciting accomplishments 233 00:12:48,570 --> 00:12:49,880 they've made in the last few months. 234 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:53,060 They've really come a long way 235 00:12:53,060 --> 00:12:54,760 towards achieving their goals. 236 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,040 So I've hit some of the highlights of that in a minute. 237 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,120 But if you'd like the full details, 238 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:01,030 I encourage you to go check out our website. 239 00:13:01,030 --> 00:13:03,440 We record all those talks 240 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:06,420 and made the slides available as well on our website. 241 00:13:06,420 --> 00:13:09,760 So you're welcome to go back 242 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:13,290 and binge-watch the entire series. 243 00:13:13,290 --> 00:13:16,257 So now moving on to the starshade. 244 00:13:19,130 --> 00:13:22,757 Our program office manages an effort that's called S5's 245 00:13:23,890 --> 00:13:28,890 which aims to mature starshade technology. 246 00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:32,720 So they would be ready by the early 2020s 247 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,610 to infuse into a flight mission 248 00:13:35,610 --> 00:13:40,610 if such a mission is recommended and undertaken by NASA. 249 00:13:42,350 --> 00:13:46,920 So there's three technology gaps that this effort 250 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:51,920 hopes to close, evolving the starlight suppression function 251 00:13:52,130 --> 00:13:55,730 of the starshade, the formation flying 252 00:13:55,730 --> 00:13:58,500 which is made the difficult part is namely incensing 253 00:13:58,500 --> 00:14:00,810 the position of the starshade relative to the telescope 254 00:14:00,810 --> 00:14:02,230 along the line of sight. 255 00:14:02,230 --> 00:14:07,010 And then deployment, the starshade has to fold up 256 00:14:07,010 --> 00:14:08,730 to fit inside a rocket fairing 257 00:14:08,730 --> 00:14:12,510 and then unfurl to 10s of meters in size 258 00:14:12,510 --> 00:14:15,110 and be very precisely positioned 259 00:14:15,110 --> 00:14:18,430 and maintaining ship shape, stability. 260 00:14:18,430 --> 00:14:20,070 So there are five different technologies 261 00:14:20,070 --> 00:14:22,993 that are being matured by this effort. 262 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:26,550 The formation sensing, as you've heard, 263 00:14:26,550 --> 00:14:31,237 if you've listened to talks over the last couple of years 264 00:14:31,237 --> 00:14:33,340 at previous Expo pags, 265 00:14:33,340 --> 00:14:36,630 you'll know that the team has already completed 266 00:14:36,630 --> 00:14:38,190 their milestone in this area, 267 00:14:38,190 --> 00:14:41,653 and that's actually considered to be ready to go. 268 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,360 The most exciting results in the last few months 269 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:47,530 have come in the other areas. 270 00:14:47,530 --> 00:14:51,010 In the starlight suppression function, there's two areas 271 00:14:52,065 --> 00:14:53,880 first of all, there's demonstrating 272 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:55,610 that the shape itself works. 273 00:14:55,610 --> 00:15:00,380 There's also suppressing light from our own sun 274 00:15:00,380 --> 00:15:03,920 that scatters off the very edges of the starshade 275 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:04,953 into the telescope. 276 00:15:06,030 --> 00:15:11,030 And then, as I mentioned, just the demonstrating the fact 277 00:15:11,290 --> 00:15:16,290 that the starshade a optical instrument in itself 278 00:15:16,370 --> 00:15:19,060 can actually be full, can be stowed 279 00:15:19,060 --> 00:15:21,623 and deployed precisely enough. 280 00:15:23,900 --> 00:15:26,610 One other thing I think I mentioned about the modeling, 281 00:15:26,610 --> 00:15:27,450 the... 282 00:15:27,450 --> 00:15:29,350 Actually I'm moving to the next slide. 283 00:15:31,580 --> 00:15:35,580 The starshade of course, you can never carry out 284 00:15:35,580 --> 00:15:39,810 a full demonstration of 10s of meters starshade 285 00:15:39,810 --> 00:15:43,210 that's flying 10s of thousands of kilometers 286 00:15:43,210 --> 00:15:45,740 from a telescope before launch. 287 00:15:45,740 --> 00:15:47,080 There's not enough space on the earth. 288 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:52,080 So the starshade demonstration relies very heavily on models 289 00:15:53,940 --> 00:15:57,040 and being extremely confident that optical models 290 00:15:57,040 --> 00:16:00,100 actually work in the regime that the starshade 291 00:16:00,100 --> 00:16:01,640 will operate in. 292 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:04,470 So a great deal of effort has been made 293 00:16:04,470 --> 00:16:07,390 to test subscale starshades, 294 00:16:07,390 --> 00:16:09,693 so actually centimeters in size, 295 00:16:11,049 --> 00:16:14,720 but to test them in the same optical configuration 296 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:16,910 that they would be operating in on orbit. 297 00:16:16,910 --> 00:16:21,910 So this involves a 70 meter long, ultra stable tube 298 00:16:22,810 --> 00:16:25,530 that's in the basement of a building in Princeton. 299 00:16:25,530 --> 00:16:27,510 And they've successfully demonstrated that 300 00:16:27,510 --> 00:16:30,420 the suppression function itself works at the 10 301 00:16:30,420 --> 00:16:34,460 to the minus 10 level over a 10% band. 302 00:16:34,460 --> 00:16:39,180 And the last step, which they're working on now, 303 00:16:39,180 --> 00:16:42,610 though it's they've run into a few delays 304 00:16:42,610 --> 00:16:44,330 due to the COVID situation 305 00:16:44,330 --> 00:16:47,660 is to take the subscale starshade 306 00:16:47,660 --> 00:16:51,100 deliberately misshaped them and make sure that 307 00:16:51,100 --> 00:16:53,150 what they measure agrees with their models. 308 00:16:53,150 --> 00:16:56,060 That'll be kind of the last step in building confidence 309 00:16:56,060 --> 00:16:58,143 that models are working well. 310 00:16:59,180 --> 00:17:02,196 So that's quite exciting that they're close 311 00:17:02,196 --> 00:17:03,993 to being done with that. 312 00:17:05,580 --> 00:17:10,580 As I mentioned before, the the sunlight 313 00:17:11,090 --> 00:17:16,090 from our own star has to be... 314 00:17:19,430 --> 00:17:24,430 The starshade has to not scatter light from our own Sun 315 00:17:25,450 --> 00:17:26,970 into the space telescope. 316 00:17:26,970 --> 00:17:29,790 And so what this involves is extremely 317 00:17:29,790 --> 00:17:34,690 sharp razor blade edge basically optical edges. 318 00:17:35,670 --> 00:17:40,240 And so the team has manufactured examples of these 319 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,630 and thermally cycled them 320 00:17:44,570 --> 00:17:47,030 through the environments that they've experienced on orbit 321 00:17:47,030 --> 00:17:50,840 and verify that they have the scattering properties 322 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:55,380 necessary to make sure that the scattered sunlight 323 00:17:55,380 --> 00:17:57,530 is kept at an acceptable level. 324 00:17:57,530 --> 00:17:59,880 So you can see it's never gonna go away to zero 325 00:18:00,950 --> 00:18:02,330 But the point is... 326 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:05,780 The target is to keep these dimmer 327 00:18:05,780 --> 00:18:09,240 than the magnitude 25 equivalent, 328 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,403 these two lobes off the starshade edges. 329 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:18,600 So that effort is successful as well. 330 00:18:19,690 --> 00:18:24,403 Now on to some of these mechanical issues. 331 00:18:28,964 --> 00:18:33,214 The pedal itself of the starshade has to of course, 332 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:40,153 be very precisely positioned when it deploys. 333 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,760 So one of the tests that was done by the team 334 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:49,520 was to manufacturer, essentially the skeleton of the pedal 335 00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:51,970 and you can see here it doesn't have its opaque structure 336 00:18:51,970 --> 00:18:56,840 on it but just as the mechanical support structure 337 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,543 made out of the materials that they hope to use. 338 00:19:00,810 --> 00:19:03,390 And they put it through a number of thermal cycles, 339 00:19:03,390 --> 00:19:08,390 and then also, since the starshade has to be wrapped up, 340 00:19:10,930 --> 00:19:13,150 the pedals are actually wrapped around themselves 341 00:19:13,150 --> 00:19:14,830 very tightly for launch. 342 00:19:14,830 --> 00:19:18,660 So just making sure that that they don't deform in any way 343 00:19:18,660 --> 00:19:23,550 while they're in that wrapped position is very important. 344 00:19:23,550 --> 00:19:26,070 And they were able to demonstrate that they 345 00:19:26,070 --> 00:19:31,070 can achieve better than 70 microns shape, accuracy 346 00:19:31,070 --> 00:19:34,600 after these deploy and thermal cycles. 347 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:35,983 So that's very exciting. 348 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,660 The inner disk part of the the starshade also has to be 349 00:19:41,660 --> 00:19:43,050 very precisely positioned 350 00:19:43,050 --> 00:19:45,490 and there's now a full scale inner disk model 351 00:19:45,490 --> 00:19:49,480 at one of the industrial partners in Colorado. 352 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,950 You can see right here, it's in the deployed state. 353 00:19:52,950 --> 00:19:55,440 All these wires and weights. 354 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:57,210 You can maybe see hanging here 355 00:19:57,210 --> 00:19:59,540 are called gravity offloaders, 356 00:19:59,540 --> 00:20:03,750 just to better simulate the conditions 357 00:20:03,750 --> 00:20:06,473 that the starshade will be while it deploys in space. 358 00:20:07,690 --> 00:20:10,440 Also under investigation, I won't really mention it 359 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:12,590 is to put flexible solar cells 360 00:20:12,590 --> 00:20:15,730 on this opaque material as well in order to power 361 00:20:15,730 --> 00:20:17,283 the starshade spacecraft. 362 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:23,720 But constructing this full scale inner disk, a prototype, 363 00:20:25,220 --> 00:20:28,910 allowed the team to demonstrate that dimensional stability 364 00:20:28,910 --> 00:20:31,330 to better than 300 microns is achieved 365 00:20:31,330 --> 00:20:35,483 after a number of thermal and storage cycles as well. 366 00:20:36,420 --> 00:20:38,020 So that so that's very exciting. 367 00:20:39,190 --> 00:20:41,210 So not only does the starshade have to deploy 368 00:20:41,210 --> 00:20:45,480 to its right shape, but it also has to maintain 369 00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:47,770 shape stability as it goes through 370 00:20:47,770 --> 00:20:50,590 the different thermal environments in space. 371 00:20:50,590 --> 00:20:51,500 It'll be... 372 00:20:52,340 --> 00:20:54,690 The sun will hit it at different angles and so on, 373 00:20:54,690 --> 00:20:57,020 and it'll actually experience 374 00:20:57,020 --> 00:20:59,680 quite a range of environments. 375 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:04,680 So this prototype pedal model was also tested for stability 376 00:21:09,570 --> 00:21:14,570 through the different thermal environments 377 00:21:14,900 --> 00:21:17,210 that will be expected to experience on orbit 378 00:21:17,210 --> 00:21:19,390 and that was successfully demonstrated 379 00:21:19,390 --> 00:21:21,403 to meet meet the requirements. 380 00:21:23,970 --> 00:21:27,743 The inner disk, part of thee starshade 381 00:21:30,030 --> 00:21:32,170 has a couple of key components 382 00:21:32,170 --> 00:21:35,060 that are expected to contribute the most... 383 00:21:36,110 --> 00:21:39,000 Could potentially warp the disk the most as it goes 384 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,670 through different thermal environments. 385 00:21:41,670 --> 00:21:45,300 So those individual pieces were tested for thermal stability 386 00:21:45,300 --> 00:21:47,620 and then also successfully achieved 387 00:21:47,620 --> 00:21:49,490 the requirements as well. 388 00:21:49,490 --> 00:21:51,327 - [Woman] Every about five minutes. 389 00:21:51,327 --> 00:21:52,827 - ]Brendan] Thank you so much. 390 00:21:56,374 --> 00:21:58,380 So if you're keeping track at home, 391 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:01,930 if you go back and look at the test plan 392 00:22:01,930 --> 00:22:05,223 that this cache technology activity laid out. 393 00:22:06,270 --> 00:22:08,380 They gave themselves a number of milestones 394 00:22:08,380 --> 00:22:10,860 and they've been going through and checking them off 395 00:22:10,860 --> 00:22:13,240 in the starlight suppression area. 396 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:18,240 There's only one milestone remaining in the mechanical area, 397 00:22:19,890 --> 00:22:23,140 they've got a number left but they're still on schedule 398 00:22:23,140 --> 00:22:28,140 and can definitely hope to achieve their results by 2023 399 00:22:28,380 --> 00:22:29,500 as they planned. 400 00:22:29,500 --> 00:22:31,040 So that's very exciting. 401 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:34,320 And stay tuned for more great results 402 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:35,573 from this team as well. 403 00:22:37,610 --> 00:22:40,093 So looking ahead, what's coming? 404 00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:42,130 So later this year, 405 00:22:42,130 --> 00:22:44,220 I kind of already hinted at some of these things 406 00:22:44,220 --> 00:22:49,220 but the SAT results will be coming in. 407 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,370 We'll be seeing some lab coronagraph demonstrations 408 00:22:52,370 --> 00:22:57,250 as I mentioned after the the PA we're hoping to also test 409 00:22:57,250 --> 00:23:01,910 the vortex test and hybrid Leo coronagraphs in vacuum. 410 00:23:01,910 --> 00:23:06,140 There will also be the Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronograph 411 00:23:06,140 --> 00:23:09,010 tested in Eretz space telescope. 412 00:23:09,010 --> 00:23:10,960 which will be very interesting as well. 413 00:23:12,506 --> 00:23:14,830 That's seems to be the best candidate technology 414 00:23:14,830 --> 00:23:16,253 for segment pupil. 415 00:23:17,430 --> 00:23:20,540 We'll see the final report on polarization coming soon. 416 00:23:20,540 --> 00:23:24,560 And we'll have further upgrades to our testbed 417 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:28,040 which will enable demonstrations 418 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:29,760 of these coronagraph technologies 419 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,760 in more and more realistic conditions. 420 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:35,070 So the starshade work will continue as well. 421 00:23:35,070 --> 00:23:39,293 I already mentioned the remaining milestones briefly. 422 00:23:40,140 --> 00:23:42,500 There'll be telescope tolerancing results 423 00:23:42,500 --> 00:23:44,400 coming out of the segmented chronograph design 424 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:45,623 and analysis study. 425 00:23:47,050 --> 00:23:49,210 One thing I didn't quite mention, 426 00:23:49,210 --> 00:23:50,800 Bertrand gave a really nice talk 427 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:52,300 about the coronagraph instrument 428 00:23:52,300 --> 00:23:54,160 on the Roman Space Telescope yesterday 429 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:55,420 and just how important it is 430 00:23:55,420 --> 00:24:00,100 for the maturation of coronagraph technology. 431 00:24:00,100 --> 00:24:03,970 For future missions, something like a HabEx or LUVOIR, 432 00:24:03,970 --> 00:24:08,970 it's really critical that CGI continues and is successful. 433 00:24:09,250 --> 00:24:12,850 But what's one thing we've been in discussion with 434 00:24:12,850 --> 00:24:15,800 in that team, of course, as a flight instrument, 435 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,780 they're very concerned with schedule and tossed. 436 00:24:18,780 --> 00:24:23,120 But we've been in discussion about 437 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:25,157 potentially including some some upgrade, 438 00:24:25,157 --> 00:24:27,870 upgraded capabilities that would further enhance 439 00:24:27,870 --> 00:24:29,540 that technology demonstration. 440 00:24:29,540 --> 00:24:32,417 So for example, that Zernike wavefront sensor 441 00:24:32,417 --> 00:24:36,070 could in principle, be put into one of those spare slots 442 00:24:36,070 --> 00:24:38,180 in the in the coronograph instrument, 443 00:24:38,180 --> 00:24:41,550 but that's still under discussion. 444 00:24:41,550 --> 00:24:43,672 But keep an eye out for that. 445 00:24:43,672 --> 00:24:48,672 We're hoping we can make CGI even more powerful 446 00:24:49,380 --> 00:24:51,780 than it already is for technology demonstration. 447 00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:53,913 As I mentioned, 448 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,130 Doug announced yesterday, 449 00:24:57,130 --> 00:25:00,100 we have this EPRV solicitation coming out. 450 00:25:00,100 --> 00:25:01,350 Keep an eye out for that. 451 00:25:02,990 --> 00:25:06,610 And then of course, we're all waiting to see what 452 00:25:06,610 --> 00:25:09,730 the recommendations of the current decadal survey are. 453 00:25:09,730 --> 00:25:12,810 We'll be seeing those in about a year and NASA will be, 454 00:25:12,810 --> 00:25:15,750 crafting response to those recommendations. 455 00:25:15,750 --> 00:25:20,380 Based on the National Academies studies 456 00:25:20,380 --> 00:25:24,960 for the exoplanet science strategy 457 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,040 and the astrobiology strategy, 458 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,810 we're hopeful that exoplanet and specifically 459 00:25:30,810 --> 00:25:35,610 terrestrial exoplanet direct imaging type missions 460 00:25:35,610 --> 00:25:38,120 and technology will feature pretty highly 461 00:25:39,510 --> 00:25:41,710 and based on those recommendations, 462 00:25:41,710 --> 00:25:44,170 we'll be updating our technology gap list 463 00:25:44,170 --> 00:25:47,290 and perhaps tweaking our focus as well 464 00:25:47,290 --> 00:25:49,590 depending on what they asked for. 465 00:25:49,590 --> 00:25:54,430 We're already in fact asking ourselves what other types of 466 00:25:54,430 --> 00:25:57,510 technologies they may mention for example, 467 00:25:57,510 --> 00:26:01,160 they gonna bring up mid infrared interferometry 468 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,240 or astrometry, so at least within the program office, 469 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,030 we're already starting discussions 470 00:26:06,030 --> 00:26:10,222 around those kinds of technologies as well. 471 00:26:10,222 --> 00:26:12,210 Just to make make sure we're ready 472 00:26:12,210 --> 00:26:13,580 and not not missing anything. 473 00:26:13,580 --> 00:26:16,710 But of course, we're all excited to find out 474 00:26:16,710 --> 00:26:18,610 what the recommendations actually are. 475 00:26:19,850 --> 00:26:23,224 Then finally, to wrap up, if you want to find ways 476 00:26:23,224 --> 00:26:25,110 that you can get involved in this, 477 00:26:25,110 --> 00:26:28,260 please don't hesitate to reach out to me. 478 00:26:28,260 --> 00:26:33,260 One particular thing I'd like to offer 479 00:26:34,181 --> 00:26:38,797 is later in the summer, if you'd like to get a deeper dive 480 00:26:38,797 --> 00:26:43,000 into some of these activities, I was planning to offer 481 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,273 a one hour presentation accept technology primer. 482 00:26:50,830 --> 00:26:54,360 And again, please contact me if you're interested, 483 00:26:54,360 --> 00:26:58,577 but I will also announce that via the usual email 484 00:26:58,577 --> 00:27:02,773 and with that, I can wrap up and take any questions. 485 00:27:05,090 --> 00:27:07,700 - [Woman] Awesome. Thank you, Brendan. 486 00:27:07,700 --> 00:27:08,950 Just wanna remind people I don't know 487 00:27:08,950 --> 00:27:09,860 if it was announced in the beginning 488 00:27:09,860 --> 00:27:13,210 that all questions are gonna be submitted through slidedoor, 489 00:27:13,210 --> 00:27:14,200 which is what we did yesterday, 490 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:15,700 and it worked out pretty well. 491 00:27:16,690 --> 00:27:21,690 So one question so far, so with AO possibility for APRV 492 00:27:23,190 --> 00:27:24,910 will, the deformable mirror study 493 00:27:24,910 --> 00:27:28,100 considered ground based needs in addition to 494 00:27:28,100 --> 00:27:29,150 direct imaging needs? 495 00:27:31,260 --> 00:27:32,987 - [Brendan] Right, that's a great question. 496 00:27:32,987 --> 00:27:37,987 So, our deformable mirror survey is really focused on 497 00:27:38,270 --> 00:27:40,160 our future space missions, for sure. 498 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,570 But of course, we understand that 499 00:27:43,700 --> 00:27:48,700 there's a lot of synergy with ground based instruments 500 00:27:49,570 --> 00:27:52,090 and other needs as well. 501 00:27:52,090 --> 00:27:56,330 So it's definitely... 502 00:27:56,330 --> 00:27:59,550 The survey is really kind of a information gathering. 503 00:27:59,550 --> 00:28:04,550 So, I think this technology is particularly 504 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:07,950 more suitable for ground based needs as well. 505 00:28:07,950 --> 00:28:10,950 We would note it, but it's not like we would 506 00:28:10,950 --> 00:28:12,400 completely ignore it. 507 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,200 So I think that's something we would certainly 508 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:17,450 keep an eye on as we gather that information.