Paper
21 September 2007 Conceptual design of the TPF-O SC buses
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The Terrestrial Planet Finder - Occulter (TPF-O) mission has two Spacecraft (SC) buses, one for a formation-flying occulter and the other for a space telescope. These buses supply the utilities (support structures, propulsion, attitude control, power, communications, etc) required by the payloads: a deployable shade for the occulter and a telescope with instruments for the space telescope. Significant requirements for the occulter SC bus are to provide the large delta V required for the slewing maneuvers of the occulter and communications for formation flying. The TPF-O telescope SC bus shares some key features of the one for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in that both support space telescopes designed to observe in the visible to near infrared range of wavelengths with comparable primary mirror apertures (2.4 m for HST, 2.4 - 4.0 m for TPF-O). Significant differences from HST are that 1) the TPF-O telescope is expected to have a Wide Field Camera (WFC) that will have a Field of View (FOV) large enough to provide fine guidance, 2) TPF-O is designed to operate in an orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange 2 (SEL2) point which requires TPF-O (unlike HST) to have a propulsion system, and 3) the velocity required for reaching SEL2 and the limited capabilities of affordable launch vehicles require both TPF-O elements to have compact, low-mass designs. Additionally, it is possible that TPF-O may utilize a modular design derived from that of HST to allow robotic servicing in the SEL2 orbit.
© (2007) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Lloyd R. Purves "Conceptual design of the TPF-O SC buses", Proc. SPIE 6687, UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes: Innovative Technologies and Concepts III, 668718 (21 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.732597
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KEYWORDS
Telescopes

Space telescopes

Stars

Cameras

Ions

Planets

Antennas

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