Engineering topics
Schulz, Kevin
Publications and source records attributed to Schulz, Kevin.
Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) starshade-only architectures
The HabEx mission concept is intended to directly image planetary systems around nearby stars, and to perform a wide range of general astrophysics and solar system observations. The baseline HabEx design would use both a coronagraph and a starshade for exoplanet discovery and characterization. We describe a lower-cost alternative HabEx mission design, which would only use a starshade for exoplanet science. The starshade would provide excellent exoplanet science performance, but for a smaller number of detected exoplanets of all types, including exoEarth candidates, and a smaller fraction of exoplanets with measured orbits. The full suite of HabEx general astrophysics and solar-system science would be supported.
Mirror Design Study for a Segmented HabEx System
NASA is exploring telescope and mirror technology options to meet the demanding science goals of the proposed HabEx space telescope. A key priority for the HabEx mission concept would be to leverage affordable telescope solutions that can meet challenging telescope performance requirements with a demanding program timeline. The baseline approach for HabEx is to use an unobscured, monolithic primary mirror with a coronagraph to optimize system performance. NASA is performing an initial study to investigate the feasibility of a HabEx Lite concept which would not leverage a coronagraph and would therefore, have lower exoEarth yield as a consequence, but could provide system mass, cost, and schedule advantages. The HabEx Lite concept leverages replicated, ULE® mirror segments to provide an attractive, alternative telescope architecture to meet the HabEx threshold mission needs. We present the initial mirror design and performance assessment for the HabEx Lite concept.
HabEx Lite: a Starshade-only Habitable Exoplanet Imager Alternative
The HabEx mission concept is intended to directly image planetary systems around nearby stars, and to perform a wide range of general astrophysics and solar system observations. Its main goal is the discovery and characterization of Earthlike exoplanets through high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy. The baseline HabEx concept would use both a coronagraph and a starshade for exoplanet science. We describe an alternative, “HabEx Lite” concept, which would use a starshade (only) for exoplanet science. The benefit is lower cost: by deleting the complex coronagraph instrument; by lowering observatory mass; by relaxing tolerances and stability requirements; by permitting use of a compact on-axis telescope design; by use of a smaller launch vehicle. The scientific penalty of this lower cost option is a smaller number of detected exoplanets of all types, including exoEarth candidates, and a smaller fraction of exoplanets with measured orbits. Our approach uses a non-deployed segmented primary mirror, whose manufacture is within current capabilities.