Development of the ICEpic Photonic Beam Combiner for Visible/NIR Interferometry in Space

Capability Need/Knowledge Gap: Spectroscopy and imaging in the visible and NIR with km scale baseline interferometry is infeasible with traditional optics. Objectives: We will develop simulated designs for the ICEpic beam combiner. Our designs will use photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to overcome bulk-optics limitations in baseline sensing and stability.

Deliverables: Milestone #1: A simulation of an “on-sky” ICEpic interferometer which: Consists of 20 telescopes in an array with baseline separations between 10 m and 1 km. Quantifies the tolerance of ICEpic to quasi-static baseline drifts of ~ 1 cm. Quantifies tolerance to dynamic baseline aberrations. Demonstrates spectroscopy and aperture synthesis imaging at 1.5 μm. Milestone #2: A simulation of a “laboratory” setup consisting of 4 simulated laboratory input channels and same set of deliverables as Milestone #1.

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