Scalable micro-shutter systems for UV, visible, and infrared spectroscopy.

Multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) is a technology development priority of the Cosmic Origins Program. Aperture control methods that are popular in ground-based MOS applications (e.g., robotically configured fibers and punch plates) are not practical options for spaceflight. Microshutter array technology solves this problem. A microshutter array functions as a slit mask that can be programmed to provide any pattern of slits corresponding to sparsely distributed sources on the sky. It can also be programed to provide shaped slits on extended sources. Our first generation micro-shutter technology enabled realization of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec). This prior technology involved a combination of electrostatic and magnetic actuation that results in a heavy complex mechanical assembly that does not scale to larger formats required by strategic mission concepts that are under study for the 2020 Decadal Survey. Our Next Generation MicroShutter Array (NGMSA) technology eliminates the magnetic actuation aspect as well as the mechanical complexity and mass associated with it. The result is a simple low mass shutter array that is scalable to very large formats with no life-limited mechanical components. This major breakthrough has been demonstrated to TRL-4 in small 128 x 64 pixel arrays of 200 x 100 micron shutter pixels under prior APRA and GSFC internal investment funding. A prototype of this small format is in testing for space flight on a sounding rocket that is expected to launch during spring of 2019. This proposal requests support to advance the above NGMSA state of art to a 840 x 420 pixel three side buttable format to support strategic mission applications discussed below. The 840 x 420 format NGMSA is an enabling technology for the Large UltraViolet Optical InfraRed surveyor (LUVOIR), the Habitable Exoplanet surveyor (HabEx) strategic missions, and the Cosmic Evolution Through UV Spectroscopy (CETUS) probe-class mission concept studies that are being developed by the Cosmic Origins Program. Each of these mission concept studies have incorporated large format NGMSAs into their study baseline. Micro-shutters remain the only low complexity option for enabling high (>10^5) contrast MOS for spaceflight applications. The wide range of Decadal Survey mission concept studies that are designing around the NGMSA illustrate the broad science pull for advancing the readiness of this technology to meet National science priorities for astrophysics in the next decade. In this proposal, we request support for a tightly focused three year project to bring the 840 X 420 three side buttable NGMSA array from TRL-3 to TRL-5 and to produce two element mosaic assemblies of these arrays tested to TRL-5, to enable MOS science requirements of the above mission concept studies. This proposal team includes collaborators from each of these mission studies to insure alignment with their respective "pull technology" requirements. In order to lend efficacy to evaluation of the LUVOIR, HabEx, and CETUS mission concept studies by the 2020 Decadal Survey, it is imperative that maturation of the 840 x 420 mosaic building block array be approved on this SAT solicitation cycle.

The Strategic Astrophysics Technology program (SAT) supports focused development efforts for key technologies to the point at which they are ready to feed into major missions in the three science themes of the Astrophysics Division: Exoplanet Exploration, Cosmic Origins, and the Physics of the Cosmos. This program is specifically designed to address middle technology readiness level (TRL) "gaps" between levels 3 and 6: the maturation of technologies that have been established as feasible, but which are not yet sufficiently mature to incorporate into flight missions without introducing an unacceptable level of risk. NASA does not require a data management plan for proposals to SAT.

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