Navigating stellar wobbles for imaging with the solar gravitational lens

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the complex navigation challenges of a spacecraft using the solar gravitational lens for high-resolution exoplanet imaging, demonstrating that precise navigation is feasible with current technology over a decade-long mission.

Contribution

It provides a detailed assessment of the navigational requirements and feasibility for a spacecraft to utilize the solar gravitational lens for imaging distant exoplanets.

Findings

The image motion is primarily driven by exoplanet and solar reflex motions.

Navigational accuracy can be achieved with existing propulsion technology.

A 10-year imaging mission is feasible with proper modeling.

Abstract

The solar gravitational lens (SGL) offers unique capabilities for high-resolution imaging of faint, distant objects, such as exoplanets. In the near future, a spacecraft carrying a meter-class telescope with a solar coronagraph would be placed in the focal region of the SGL. That region begins at ~547 astronomical units from the Sun and occupies the vicinity of the target-specific primary optical axis - the line that connects the center of the target and that of the Sun. This axis undergoes complex motion as the exoplanet orbits its host star, as that star moves with respect to the Sun, and even as the Sun itself moves with respect to the solar system's barycenter due to the gravitational pull of planets in our solar system. An image of an extended object is projected by the SGL into an image plane and moves within that plane, responding to the motion of the optical axis. To sample the image, a telescope must follow the projection with precise knowledge of its own position with respect to the image. We consider the dominant motions that determine the position of the focal line as a function of time. We evaluate the needed navigational capability for the telescope to conduct a multiyear exoplanet imaging mission. We show that even in a rather conservative case, when an Earth-like exoplanet is in our stellar neighborhood at $\sim10$ light years, the motion of the image is characterized by a small total acceleration $\sim 6.1\,\mu {\rm m/s}^2$ that is driven primarily by the orbital motion of the exoplanet and by the reflex motion of our Sun. We discuss how the amplified light of the host star allows establishing a local reference frame thus relaxing navigational requirements. We conclude that the required navigation in the SGL's focal region, although complex, can be accurately modeled and a $\sim 10$-year imaging mission is achievable with the already available propulsion technology.