Flight masks of the Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument
Over the past two decades, thousands of confirmed exoplanets have been detected. The next major challenge is to characterize these other worlds and their stellar systems. Much information on the composition and formation of exoplanets and circumstellar debris disks can only be achieved via direct imaging. Direct imaging is challenging because of the small angular separations (<1 arcsec) and high star-to-planet flux ratios such as ∼109 for a Jupiter analog or ∼1010 for an Earth analog in the visible. Atmospheric turbulence prohibits reaching such high flux ratios on the ground, so observations must be made above the Earth’s atmosphere. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman), planned to launch in late 2026, will be the first space-based observatory to demonstrate high-contrast imaging with active wavefront control using its Coronagraph Instrument. The instrument’s main purpose is to mature the various technologies needed for a future flagship mission to image and characterize Earth-like exoplanets. These technologies include two high-actuator-count deformable mirrors, photon-counting detectors, two complementary wavefront sensing and control loops, and two different coronagraph types. We describe the complete set of flight masks in the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, their intended combinations, and how they were laid out, fabricated, and measured.
Authors
- Carey L. Weisberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2995-2569)
- Jessica Gersh-Range
- N. Jeremy Kasdin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6963-7486)
- A. J. Eldorado Riggs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0863-6228)
- Tyler D. Groff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5978-3247)
- Vanessa P. Bailey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5407-2806)
- Neil T. Zimmerman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5484-1516)
- Scott A. Basinger
- J. S. Sandhu
- Robert C. Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2963-2971)
- Kunjithapatham Balasubramanian
- Daniel W. Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7131-0407)
- Bertrand Mennesson
- Nicholas Siegler
- John T. Trauger
- Eduardo Bendek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9408-8925)
- Garreth Ruane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4769-1665)
- Brian Monacelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6249-2296)
- Dwight Moody
- Erkin Sidick
- Brandon D. Dube (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3837-605X)
- John H. Debes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1783-8817)
- Fang Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-211X)
- Ruslan Belikov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4951-8025)
- Dan Sirbu
- Karl Y. Yee
- Douglas M. Moore
- Victor White
Institutions
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Princeton University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems
- Published
- 2025-03-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.11.2.021403
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- History and Developments in Astronomy
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.62