EXCEDE technology milestone# 1: monochromatic contrast demonstration

摘要: 1. ObjectiveThe Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer (EXCEDE)[1] is an EXPLORER EX-class mission proposed to NASA. EXCEDE uses a 0.7-m diameter telescope to perform high contrast imaging of the circumstellar environments of nearby stars, and was selected by NASA as a Category III investigation for technology development and maturation. EXCEDE will study the formation, evolution and architectures of exoplanetary systems, and characterize circumstellar environments into stellar habitable zones (HZs). EXCEDE provides contrastlimited scattered-light detection sensitivities currently estimated to be~ 1000x greater than HST performance and expectations for coronagraphy at a much smaller effective inner working angle (IWA), thus enabling the exploration and characterization of exoplanetary circumstellar disks in currently inaccessible domains. EXCEDE will utilize a laboratory demonstrated Phase Induced Amplitude Apodized Coronagraph (PIAA-C) integrated with a 70 cm diameter unobscured aperture visible light telescope. EXCEDE is a science-driven technology pathfinder that will advance our understanding of the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems, placing our solar system in broader astrophysical context. Concomitantly, EXCEDE will demonstrate the high contrast technologies required for larger-scale space-based follow-on and multi-wavelength investigations on the road to finding and characterizing exo-Earths in the years ahead.