Achieving Stability – Systems Design and Analysis of the Roman Space Telescope

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) is the highest-priority large space mission identified by the 2020 New Worlds, New Horizon Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Its mission encompasses critical research in dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. Additionally, Roman will feature a technology demonstration coronagraph with active wavefront control for exoplanet imaging. Scheduled to launch no later than spring 2027, Roman will operate in a Sun-Earth L2 orbit with a primary mission duration of 5 years. To achieve its scientific objectives and technology demonstration goals, the Roman observatory must meet exceptional stability requirements. This paper outlines the multi-faceted, layered design approach employed to meet these stability requirements while adhering to cost and schedule constraints. Throughout the development phase, the team used a system-level analysis, or integrated modeling approach to enable rapid assessments of design trade-offs and facilitate the maturation of system designs to satisfy the stringent stability requirements.