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Interferometric Mission Simulation Environment: An Essential NASA Mission Planning Tool
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| We propose to develop the Interferometric Mission Simulation Environment (IMSE) whose purpose is to enable design optimization
and decrease the cost and technical risk associated with space-based interferometry missions. IMSE will have broad application to
interferometers currently under consideration in several of the Divisions of NASA¿s Science Mission Directorate, such as the Space
Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT) and the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) in Astrophysics, the Earth
Atmospheric Solar-Occultation Imager (EASI) in Earth Science, and the L2 Mars Atmospheric Probe (L2-MAP) in Planetary Science.
These interferometers will provide valuable imaging and/or spectroscopic data vital to NASA¿s scientific mission. The IMSE includes
three components. The first component is a software package that generates realistic test scenes, or ¿truth images.¿ These scenes will
be used to assess both the performance of interferometer designs and the algorithms used to process and analyze simulated
interferometric data. The Scene Generator for Interferometry (SGI) will include the ability to generate simple test scenes, in order to
enable the verification of the IMSE functionality through analytic calculation. It will also provide the ability to generate realistic
spectral/spatial scenes of scientifically interesting targets, including extragalactic deep fields using the Far-Infrared Sky Simulator
(FSS) and Galactic sources such as debris disks. The second component of IMSE is a ¿virtual interferometer,¿ which captures in detail
the important elements of an interferometer¿s engineering design. The Virtual Interferometry Simulator (VIS) will be based on the
existing Simulator for Infrared/Submillimeter Space Interferometry (SISSI), which was developed primarily to evaluate alternative
SPIRIT mission design concepts. The virtual interferometer will simulate instrumental response to photon input and will realistically
model error sources, exposing the causes of uncertainty that dominate. This will enable mission designers to analyze the impacts of
their architecture and design choices, and guide data analysts whose task will be to interpret the interferometric data. The third
component of IMSE comprises a set of interferometric data reduction tools designed to convert simulated interferometric data into
spatial-spectral data cubes for comparison with the input ¿truth¿ data sets. All of the components of the IMSE will work together to
facilitate space interferometer mission design, and each component of the IMSE will be applicable to a number of missions and
facilities in which NASA has a vested interest. |
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