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A mission to nature’s telescope for high-resolution imaging of an exoplanet

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Abstract

The solar gravitational lens (SGL) provides a factor of \(10^{11}\) amplification for viewing distant point sources beyond our solar system. As such, it may be used for resolved imaging of extended sources, such as exoplanets, not possible otherwise. To use the SGL, a spacecraft carrying a modest telescope and a coronagraph must reach the SGLs focal region, that begins at \(\sim \)550 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun and is oriented outward along the line connecting the distant object and the Sun. No spacecraft has ever reached even a half of that distance; and to do so within a reasonable mission lifetime (e.g., less than 25 years) and affordable cost requires a new type of mission design, using solar sails and microsats (\(<100\) kg). The payoff is high – using the SGL is the only practical way we can ever get a high-resolution, multi-pixel image of an Earth-like exoplanet, one that we identify as potentially habitable. This paper describes a novel mission design starting with a rideshare launch from the Earth, spiraling in toward the Sun, and then flying around it to achieve solar system exit speeds of over 20 AU/year. A new sailcraft design is used to make possible high area to mass ratio for the sailcraft. The mission design enables other fast solar system missions, starting with a proposed very low cost technology demonstration mission (TDM) to prove the functionality and operation of the microsat-solar sail design and then, building on the TDM, missions to explore distant regions of the solar system, and those to study Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) and the recently discovered interstellar objects (ISOs) are also possible.

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Data Availibility Statement

No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Notes

  1. LSST is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, https://www.lsst.org/

  2. European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), first light in 2025, https://elt.eso.org/

  3. Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), first light in 2027, https://www.tmt.org/

  4. Some preliminary analysis of exoplanet imaging with an optical telescope was presented in [21,22,23], see discussion in [8, 9, 12].

  5. Modern the chemical rocket cannot produce enough \(\Delta v\) for realistic spacecraft mass to go fast enough to reach the SGL focal region in \(\sim \)30 years. These powerful rocket engines, even many of them staged together, may produce \(\Delta v\) on the order of 13 AU/year at best.

  6. Rideshare is a term used when a small payload hitches a ride with a bigger payload thereby saving launch costs.

  7. A patented design invented by D. Garber of Xplore, Inc. and N. Barnes of L’Garde, Inc.

  8. https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/observatory/sunshield.html, https://www.vice.com/en/article/9akddp/this-sunshield-will-keep-the-most-powerful-space-telescope-ever-from-frying

  9. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/parkersolarprobe_presskit_august2018_final.pdf

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Acknowledgements

The work described here, in part, was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Additional funding has been provided by the Aerospace Corporation. The NIAC Phase III study from which this work was derived also included Breakthrough Initiatives, Xplore Inc., and Cornell Tech (a campus of Cornell University). We thank the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for their support. Pre-decisional information – for planning and discussion purposes only.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Planetary Society (emeritus), Pasadena, CA, 91101, USA

    Louis D. Friedman

  2. Xplore Inc, Mercer Island, WA, 98040, USA

    Darren Garber

  3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA

    Slava G. Turyshev

  4. The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA, 90245, USA

    Henry Helvajian, Thomas Heinshiemer & John McVey

  5. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Artur R. Davoyan

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  1. Louis D. Friedman
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Correspondence to Slava G. Turyshev.

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Friedman, L.D., Garber, D., Turyshev, S.G. et al. A mission to nature’s telescope for high-resolution imaging of an exoplanet. Exp Astron 57, 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-024-09919-x

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