The Optical Telescope Assembly for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph: Design and Analysis Results

Abstract

The Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPFC) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) exploration mission to directly detect and characterize terrestrial exoplanets at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The TPFC mission is currently in a “pre-formulation” stage where requirements and designs are traded. TPFC must distinguish a planet that is more than 10 orders of magnitude fainter than its parent star at a separation of 62 mas ($\lambda = 600$ nm). Coronagraphic detection requires a large aperture telescope to resolve the exoplanet from its parent star, and great system (wavefront) stability during detection and characterization. This paper discusses the design considerations, trade studies and analysis leading to the current, “reference” design for the TPFC telescope. We present the salient features of the design and the most significant structural, thermal and optical analysis results. We also discuss the planned model validation and performance verification approach.