A project in the UMass Lowell, The Planet Imaging Coronagraphic Technology Using a Reconfigurable Experimental Base mission (PICTURE-B) is a NASA sounding rocket mission to directly measure optical light scattered by the debris disk around Epsilon-Eri, a nearby K2V-type star, 3.2 parsecs (10.5 light years) from Earth, with the relatively young age of approximately 1 billion years.

PICTURE-B consists of a 0.5 meter telescope and visible nulling coronograph instrument (a "nuller") to attenuate the overwhelmingly bright light from a star, while enabling dim light from material around the star to reach the science camera. The electronics section on PICTURE-B includes three networked computers, controlling the nuller, the science and wavefront sensing cameras and the fine pointing system. In the future, PICTURE-B can be reconfigured for extended balloon born observations of fainter, more distant, debris disks.

While PICTURE-B's scientific objectives are spectacular, its technology objectives are equally important impact. By demonstrating a visible nulling coronograph and a deformable mirror in the space environment, PICTURE-B will significantly advance the broader goal of direct imaging of Earth-like planets.

The PICTURE-B nuller was previously launched on a NASA sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range in Oct. 2011 as the PICTURE mission, successfully demonstrating flight-worthiness and the fine steering technology. The remarkable fine steering control, required by the PICTURE-B mission and future missions to image exoplanets, kept the telescope pointed at the star Rigel to within a few millions of a degree (see Mendillo et al. 2012a ). Unfortunately, the science telemetry channel failed in-flight and no science data was received. The payload was successfully recovered and the ultra-low-expansion glass primary mirror did not survive re-entry and landing. The PICTURE-B payload will re-fly the original PICTURE nuller and fine steering system, while incorporating a new silicon carbide primary mirror. For a more detailed description of the PICTURE payload, see Mendillo et al 2012, "PICTURE: a Sounding Rocket Experiment for Direct Imaging of an Extrasolar Planetary Environment."

Team Members: UMass Lowell: Supriya Chakrabarti, Principle Investigator Timothy Cook, Co-Investigator Chris Mendillo, Postdoctoral Associate Jason Martel, Mechanical Engineer Boston University: Ewan Douglas, Graduate Student Northrop Grumman Inc: Ronald Polidan, Collaborator NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Brian A. Hicks, Postdoctoral Fellow

PICTURE-B related publications:

• C. B. Mendillo, B. A. Hicks, T. A. Cook, T. G. Bifano, D. A. Content, B. F. Lane, B. M. Levine, D. Rabin, S. R. Rao, R. Samuele, E. Schmidtlin, M. Shao, J. K. Wallace, S. Chakrabarti, 2012. "PICTURE: a Sounding Rocket Experiment for Direct Imaging of an Extrasolar Planetary Environment." Proc. SPIE (September 21).


• C. B. Mendillo, S. Chakrabarti, T. A. Cook, B. A. Hicks, and B. F. Lane, 2012, "Flight demonstration of a milliarcsecond pointing system for direct exoplanet imaging," Appl. Opt. 51, 7069-7079


• S. R. Rao, J. K. Wallace, R. Samuele, S. Chakrabarti, T. A. Cook, B. A. Hicks, P. G. Jung, B. F. Lane, B. M. Levine, C. B. Mendillo, E. Schmidtlin, M. Shao, and J. B. Stewart, 2008, "Path length control in a nulling coronagraph with a MEMS deformable mirror and a calibration interferometer," Proc. SPIE 6888.

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