Observatory for Planetary Investigations from the Stratosphere

SBAG Janurary 7, 2014

Terry Hurford, Avi Mandell, Eliot Young, Vishnu Reddy

OPIS Team, WASP Team

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Mission Goals To demonstrate the pointing accuracy as well as short and long

term stability of the Wallops ArcSecond Pointing (WASP) system to enable planetary science observations.

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Objectives - Jupiter To observe Jupiter at multiple

wavelengths in order to demonstrate the pointing and tracking

accuracy of the WASP system the short term stability of the

WASP system, allowing spatially resolved data to be gathered

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WASP Short Term Stability • WASP test flight data

shows stability to 1” over 40 minutes

• OPIS pixel FOV is 0.25” • Expect that OPIS

can image at 0.25”/pixel resolution with short exposures

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Objectives - Exoplanet To observe the

transit of an exoplanet in an H2O band in order to demonstrate the pointing and

tracking accuracy of the WASP system

the long term stability of the WASP system

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WASP Long Term Stability Can maintain sub-

arcsecond pointing over 40 minutes in test flight

OPIS will test this stability over a 4 hour observation of an exoplanet transit

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Objectives - Asteroid To observe the rotation light

curve of a bright asteroid in order to demonstrate the pointing and tracking

accuracy of the WASP system, the long term stability of the

WASP system.

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OPIS Imaging System

Built around a refurbished 21” telescope

OTS Apogee Alta CCD camera

Translation stage for focusing

Custom avionics to control the system

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Main OPIS Structure

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Star Tracker

Trim Weight

CCD Camera & Filter Wheel

LN-251

OPIS optic

Translation Stage w/ Stepper Motor

Batteries

Avionics Boxes Mounted Side by Side

C.G. Bright Body Camera

Main OPIS Structure

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OPIS Flight October 8, 2014

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Mission Fact Sheet Observatory for Planetary Investigations from the Stratosphere (OPIS) Launch Date October 8, 2014, 8AM

Launch Site Ft. Sumner, NM

Flight Altitude 105,000 ft

Float Duration ~8 hours

Observation Targets • Jupiter • Bright Star

OPIS Optics 21” (0.533m) refurbished Cassini CIRS telescope

Imager Apogee Alta F32 CCD system

Platescale 0.25”/pixel

Wavelengths • Clear Filter 300-900nm • 50% Neutral Density 300-900nm • Edge Filter 600-900nm • H2O band pass 720nm • H2O continuum 750nm • Grating Filter

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OPIS Float Altitude 105,000 ft

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Jupiter Observations Scattered Earth

Shine into optics was problematic

Obtained non-smeared Jupiter images

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Jupiter Continued Will process images

Will analyze the statistics of image quality to assess WASP ability to maintain short-term image quality

> 2,000 images collected

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Bright Star Observations Tracked a bright star target for an hour

Will be analyzing the data to evaluate WASP stability over this long-term observation window

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Bright Star Observations WASP quick look results show 0.47” Pitch x 0.39” Yaw

RMS pointing performance

Will be analyzing OPIS star images to determine if there were OPIS-WASP pointing offsets due to flexure

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Spectra Observations

Spectra of star obtained

>1,000 spectra to analyze

Asteroid target not observable since flight was shorter than expected

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OPIS Mission Summary Main objective to image Jupiter with no jitter induced

smear was successful! Plenty of images to reduce and quantify pointing

performance

Secondary objectives of long-term tracking with a star target achieved

OPIS will provide needed information on the observational conditions and challenges of high-altitude platforms for planetary science investigations

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