Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 356
This version created on 05 October 2006

Candidate architectures for the Darwin missions


Philippe Gondoin, European Space Agency

Darwin is one of the most challenging space projects ever considered
by the European Space Agency (ESA).  Its principal objectives are to
detect Earth-like planets around nearby stars and to characterize
their atmospheres.  Darwin is conceived as a space "nulling
interferometer" which makes use of on-axis destructive interferences
to extinguish the stellar light while keeping the off-axis signal of
the orbiting planet.  Within the frame of the Darwin program, the
European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated two parallel industrial
studies that are currently assessing possible implementations in space
of two candidate nulling interferometer configurations, namely the
Three Telescope Nuller and the X-array.  The presentation will
summarize the output of these space engineering system studies and
provide some elements of comparison between the proposed space mission
design concepts.  

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