When: Thursday 26th of June, 1:00pm AEST
Where: This seminar will be partially presented at the ACFR seminar area, J04 lvl 2 (Rose St Building) and partially online via Zoom. RSVP
Speaker: Connor Langford
Title: Packing Flagship Science into a CubeSat Budget
Abstract:
Despite the discovery of thousands of exoplanets in the last few decades, none have been detected orbiting Alpha Centauri A or B. The TOLIMAN space telescope is an Australian-led low-cost mission aimed at addressing this gap by detecting rocky, habitable zone planets around our nearest stellar binary neighbours. This mission will be executed using a 16U CubeSat in low Earth orbit, equipped with a 12.5cm diameter aperture telescope capable of detecting astrometric signals of the order of microarcseconds. The key innovation is a novel diffractive pupil that enables the telescope to detect potential planetary signals despite the telescope’s relatively small aperture. The diffractive pupil leverages liquid crystal technology to better constrain the separation of the binary, therefore improving the probability of detecting a planetary signal. The mission confronts significant engineering challenges due to the extremely small intrinsic size of the signals it aims to detect. For the TOLIMAN telescope, the signal is approximately 10−6 of a pixel in size. This necessitates stringent pointing and thermal stability requirements. To address these challenges, the mission employs a suite of innovative solutions, including a piezo-driven fine pointing tip-tilt system and an active thermal control system. The fine pointing system is a novel development, stemming from the necessity to have stationary optical components for the diffractive pupil to function properly. Unlike other missions that utilise fast-steering mirrors or sensors, the entire telescope must be moved in unison. In addition, precise thermal models and an active control system are being developed concurrently. These will be critical for stable optics and accurate modelling of the optical system. This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of the key engineering innovations underpinning the TOLIMAN spacecraft. It will highlight the numerous challenges encountered in developing an extremely precise instrument within a highly constrained size and financial budget. In particular, the presentation will delve into the specifics of the development of the diffractive pupil, the fine pointing system, and the active thermal control system.
Bio:
Connor Langford is a 1st year engineering PhD student working on the TOLIMAN mission at The University of Sydney. With supervisors Donald Dansereau and Peter Tuthill, he is currently developing the piezo-driven tip/tilt system, manufacturing the frontplate optics and designing an optical setup for characterising the detector. He has also assisted with the thermal modelling, optical simulations and downlink pipeline development.