Astrophysics (Index)About

New Worlds Mission

(New Worlds Observer, New Worlds Imager)
(plan for space occulter to facilitate the view of exoplanets)

The New Worlds Mission is a plan to launch an occulter (coronagraph) known as a starshade, into space, originally targeted for 2020. The occulter would orbit 80,000 miles in front of a space telescope, blocking starlight from a target star so the telescope can directly image the star's extra-solar planets. The occulter targets 400-1000 nm wavelengths. The name New Worlds Mission was adopted for a study outlining a possible occulter mission, the study completed in 2010. The study remains a source of ideas as has the subsequent plan/study, Exo-S.

The plan considered use with some future space telescope, either purpose-built or one already planned, such as JWST, placing it at L2. I'm not sure how stable a spacecraft can be positioned at/near L2 80,000 miles from another L2-orbiting spacecraft, but I presume the plan is based upon real capabilities. Another challenging factor is that differing observation targets require the starshade (and/or the telescope) to move to a new location relative to the other, requiring fuel and time and perhaps considerable operational effort.


(spacecraft,exoplanets,plan,occulter,NASA,past,L2)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Worlds_Mission
http://newworlds.colorado.edu/
https://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/meetings/annual/oct05/1200Cash.pdf
https://pcos.gsfc.nasa.gov/studies/large-missions/documents/149_newworlds_Cash_EOS.pdf
https://slideplayer.com/slide/2660737/
https://www.slideserve.com/manning/design-considerations

Referenced by pages:
Lagrangian point
starshade

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