Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Duren, R. M..
This paper is based on a collection of lessons-learned based on related missions including StarLight, a formation-flying stellar interferometry mission that merged with the Terrestrial Planet Finder technology development program just prior to entering phase C/D, the Space Interferometry Mission (currently in phase A), and the Shuttle Radar Topography Misssion of 2000.
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The growing technical complexity of and increased cost pressure on deep-space science missions poses challenges for the system engineering discipline of mission validation and verification. In the wake of several recent mission failures, the aerospace community is still searching for a stable middle ground between the highly-reliable yet cost-prohibitive approaches of the past and cheaper but excessively risky methods of project implementation.
The StarLight flight project was designed to demonstrate the key technologies of spacebome long-baseline stellar interferometry and precision formation flying for potential use on the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and other future astrophysics missions. Interferometer performance validation could be achieved over a 6-12 month period by obtaining several hundred fringe visibility amplitude measurements for stars in the band 600-1000 nm for a variety of stellar visibilities (0.2-1.0), magnitudes (Mv = 2-5), and baselines (B = 30-125 meters). Interferometry could be performed both in a 1 meter fixed-baseline combiner-only mode and in a two-spacecraft formation mode. In formation mode, the combiner spacecraft would remain at the focus of a virtual parabola, while the collector spacecraft assumed various positions along the parabola such that the two arms of the interferometer remained equal over a variety of separations and bearing angles. Challenges to be encountered in flight include high-bandwidth inter-spacecraft stellar and metrology pointing control, alignment and shear correction, delay and delay-rate estimation, visibility calibration, and robust fringe tracking in the presence of local and inter-spacecraft dynamics. This paper is based on the StarLight project design-capture of March 2002 and will describe the StarLight Interferometer System architecture and selected operational concepts (both of which have relevance to the on-going TPF Technology Program).
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This paper provides a description of the metrology camera, the process used to prepare it for flight on SRTM, the LED target development effort, test and alignment issues, and the observed in-flight performance.
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An assessment of the inflight performance of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Metrology System, also known as the Attitude and Orbit Determination avionics (AODA), is presented. The assessment is based on analysis of raw sensor data obtained during the mission.