Enabling concepts for a dual spacecraft formation-flying optical interferometer for NASA's ST3 mission

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dc.creatorGorham, Peter W.
dc.creatorFolkner, William M.
dc.creatorBlackwood, Gary H.
dc.date1999-12-15
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:35:01Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:35:01Z
dc.descriptionWe present the enabling concept and technology for a dual spacecraft formation-flying optical interferometer, to be launched into a deep space orbit as Space Technology 3. The combiner spacecraft makes use of a nested cat's eye delay line configuration that minimizes wavefront distortion and stores 20 m of optical pathlength in a package of \sim 1.5 m length. A parabolic trajectory for the secondary collector spacecraft enables baselines of up to 200 m for a fixed 20 m stored delay and spacecraft separations of up to 1 km.
dc.description6 pp, 4 fig., to appear in "Working on the Fringe", Proc. of the 1999 Dana Pt. Conf. on Optical Interferometry, PASP conf. proc., in press; (some slight revisions from conference version)
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9912327
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9912327
dc.identifierPASP conf. series vol. 194, page 359.
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/15469
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectOptics
dc.subjectSpace Physics
dc.titleEnabling concepts for a dual spacecraft formation-flying optical interferometer for NASA's ST3 mission
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