Ultra-Stable Telescope Research and Analysis -Technology Maturation (ULTRA-TM)

Two of the large mission concepts currently in development for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey – the Large UV/Optical/Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor and the Habitable Exoplanet (HabEx) Observatory – aim to perform direct imaging and spectroscopy of exo-Earth candidates with high-contrast coronagraphs. Meeting this ambitious science goal will require architectures with large-area primary mirrors to achieve the high resolution and greater photon flux needed to detect faint objects, as well as instrumentation to suppress light from a host star ~10 billion times brighter than the exoplanet of interest. Achieving contrast of 10^-10 at visible wavelengths using a coronagraph ushers in a new regime of “ultra-stable optical systems” where the corresponding wavefront stability is expressed in units of picometers rather than nanometers. This proposed effort, called “Ultra-stable Large Telescope Research and Analysis – Technology Maturation” (ULTRA-TM), will mature critical technologies to support these mission concepts and enable ground-breaking science. Ball Aerospace will lead an Industrial/University team (Harris Corporation, Northrop Grumman Aerospace/Innovation Systems, Space Telescope Science Institute, Intuitive Machines, and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) with significant experience in technology development for space science observations. The proposed effort focuses on component-level hardware demonstrations for urgent technologies, generally classified as “enabling” and “Low-TRL” or “Mid-TRL”, to demonstrate performance in the picometer regime and with flight-like properties – including edge sensors and actuators for segment sensing and control, thermal sensing and control, a tiered control system approach and low disturbance architectures for line-of-sight stability. Closing these technology gaps will address the most difficult parts of the stability problem with the longest lead times and provide significant risk reduction for the LUVOIR/HabEx mission concepts. In addition, addressing knowledge gaps/enhancing technologies in parallel across the system architecture – including the areas of stable structures/joining and stable mirrors/mounting – will provide an assessment of possible performance gains that may be worth further development. All efforts will be supported by ongoing work to refine stability budgets traceable to the top-level coronagraph performance and science goals, which drive the ultra-stability need. Our experienced industry/university team can address nearly every gap listed in the solicitation at some level. The approaches for each gap consist of a mixture of hardware demonstrations and targeted simulations, based on the gap type or level of maturity. The key deliverables for each gap addressed include: updates to the stability budgets and coronagraph performance modeling to anchor the top-level performance allocations and flow down to subsystems; results from hardware testbeds / simulations with detailed supporting error budgets, TRL assessment, and re-evaluation of each technology gap based on measured/modeled performance; and maturation plans for incorporating components into sub-systems and maturing system TRL. These deliverables will aid in the design of sub-system and system level testbeds to support eventual demonstration of an ultra-stable payload (telescope + coronagraph) to TRL 6. The maturation effort proposed here maps directly to closing the technology gaps identified for LUVOIR/HabEx (though some may also apply to OST) by NASA engineering teams, the STDTs, the ROSES D.15 study results, and the prioritized gaps in the D.13 solicitation and is relevant to NASA.

The Segmented Mirror Technology Program (SMTP) seeks to mature integrated system architectures that could enable the next generation of large space telescopes. At the end of 2017, NASA solicited industry proposals to carry out one-year end-to-end system-level engineering design and modeling studies and a subsequent RFP (Phase 2) requested proposals for technology maturation of technology gaps for large segmented-aperture or monolithic telescopes.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.