Design Trades for WFIRST

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope, WFIRST, was recommended as the highest priority mission for the next decade by the National Research Council in their 2010 report "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics.” The mission aims to measure the properties of dark energy via three different techniques: weak lensing, baryon acoustic oscillations and detecting distant supernova explosions. WFIRST will also search for micro-lensing events caused by extrasolar planets, and perform a near infrared sky survey.
Here, we present a fresh look at WFIRST by tracing the science and mission requirements to the three mission concepts that formed the basis of WFIRST and incorporating them into a consistent set. We expect that these requirements will further evolve as NASA evolves the program and use this representative set as an interim solution. From there, we highlight the requirements that are expected to drive the design and evaluate current capabilities based on current and past missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, the Space Interferometry Mission, and other mission concepts. We ask what makes the project hard to do. What have we learned from other missions that we can bring to WFIRST? Are there any options that would significantly reduce cost or risk while preserving the science return? Finally, we present a preliminary design concept and identify key trades that will lead to a robust, affordable design that meets all science and mission requirements.
We conclude with a preview of future work we expect to perform over the next year.

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

Design Trades for WFIRST 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 Design Trades for WFIRST, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Design Trades for WFIRST will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1403959

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