Flight demonstration of a milliarcsecond pointing system for direct exoplanet imaging

Area of Science:

• * Astrophysics
• * Optical Engineering

Background:

• * Direct imaging of exozodiacal dust disks is crucial for characterizing exoplanetary systems.
• * Previous rocket-based experiments have faced challenges in achieving the necessary pointing stability for high-contrast imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To present flight results from the optical pointing control system of the PICTURE sounding rocket.
• * To evaluate the performance of the fine pointing system (FPS) in stabilizing the telescope beam for exozodiacal dust imaging.

Main Methods:

• * Utilized a visible nulling coronagraph to attempt direct imaging of the exozodiacal dust disk of ϵ Eridani.
• * Implemented a fine pointing system (FPS) with an angle tracker camera and fast steering mirror.
• * Analyzed the power spectral density of the FPS and rocket attitude control system (ACS) in-flight performance.

Main Results:

• * The rocket's attitude control system (ACS) provided 627 mas RMS body pointing.
• * The PICTURE fine pointing system (FPS) successfully stabilized the telescope beam to 5.1 mas RMS.
• * Achieved pointing stability comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Conclusions:

• * The PICTURE mission demonstrated a highly stable optical pointing control system suitable for exoplanetary science.
• * The achieved pointing precision validates the FPS design for future high-contrast imaging missions.