Accuracy and Stability of Fringe Measurements in SIM

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

In order to identify habitable planets beyond our solar system it is necessary to determine their masses. SIM PlanetQuest is the only space mission which can discover and measure planets as small and cool as those in our solar system. This mission, however, requires unprecedented accuracy of angular measurements to the level of a microarcsecond, which are three orders of magnitude better than the accuracy of the recent space astrometric missions. For microarcsecond accuracy of astrometric measurements the corresponding fringe delay must be determined to the accuracy of picometers and it is a challenging task to measure fringe delays to this level of precision. Several testbeds in SIM have been established in order to check critical techniques and to validate estimation of fringe parameters. Many instrumental errors such as beam walk, cyclic errors, vibrations, alignment errors, visibility losses, wavefront distortions and thermal drift are investigated. Also lessons learned from the Hipparcos mission lead us to further study of possible systematic biases. By using Full Aperture Metrology (FAM) wavelength calibration we show significant differences between stability and systematic offset of fringe measurements. A new calibration procedure is proposed.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Accuracy and Stability of Fringe Measurements in SIM does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Accuracy and Stability of Fringe Measurements in SIM, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Accuracy and Stability of Fringe Measurements in SIM will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1138223

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.