Dr. Eliot F. Young Profile

Dr. Eliot F. Young

Planetary Scientist at Southwest Research Institute

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Publications (6)

Proceedings Article | 18 July 2018 Presentation

Planetary science capabilities of a UV-visible balloon-borne telescope as a function of wavefront error (Conference Presentation)

Eliot Young, Brian Catanzaro, Nicolas Gorius, Robert Woodruff, Monica Hoffmann, Jeffrey Juergens

Proceedings Volume 10700, 107001H (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314323

KEYWORDS: Space telescopes, Telescopes, Planetary science, Wavefronts, Point spread functions, Satellites, Spatial resolution, Ultraviolet radiation, Visible radiation, Clouds

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Several classes of planetary science observations require high spatial resolution in UV and visible wavelengths. Key examples include (a) the detection of satellites and characterization of their orbits, (b) the discovery of faint and small objects among the NEO, asteroid, Kuiper belt or Sedna-like populations and (c) cloud or trace gas observations in planetary atmospheres. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations have been very productive in these areas: consider the recent discovery of Makemake's satellite (Parker et al., 2016), the discovery of 2014 MU69 (now the flyby target of the New Horizons spacecraft) or the OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) program. Like HST, large-aperture ground-based telescopes with adaptive optics can also achieve spatial resolutions of 50 mas, but normally at wavelengths longer than ~1 μm. Projects like MagAO-2K are working on improving image quality at visible wavelengths, but while the core PSF (Point Spread Function) width might be narrow (projected to be 15 mas at the Magellan telescope), the Strehl ratio drops steeply with wavelength (Males et al., 2016). Not all science goals suffer equally from low Strehl ratios, however: cloud tracking on Venus is more tolerant of a low Strehl ratio than searching for a close satellite of Makemake. A telescope on a NASA super-pressure balloon would float above 99.3% of the atmosphere, where the inner Fried parameter is thought to be two meters or more. While atmospheric turbulence is not expected to impact image quality, there are other sources of wavefront error (WFE), such as mirror figuring, misalignment of the OTA (Optical Telescope Assembly) or asymmetric heating from the Sun or Earth. We reference recent work that estimates balloon telescope WFEs from different sources to generate a suite of plausible PSFs. We apply these PSFs to the UV and visible wavelength science cases outlined in the GHAPS/SIDT report (Gondola for High Altitude Planetary Science/Science Instrument Definition Team). We quantify the impact that WFE has on achieving the planetary observations outlined in the SIDT report.

Proceedings Article | 11 July 2018 Paper

Low light level quadriwave lateral shearing interferometer for in-situ wavefront sensing

Brian Catanzaro, Benoit Wattellier, Ekaterina Boldyreva, Eliot Young, Michael Lewis, Jeffrey Juergens, Robert Woodruff, Monica Hoffmann

Proceedings Volume 10703, 107035J (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312331

KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, Stars, Wavefront sensors, Mirrors, Telescopes, Optical instrument design, Sensors, Space telescopes, Shearing interferometers, Observatories

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Proceedings Article | 10 July 2018 Presentation + Paper

STOP modeling in support of a 1-meter aperture balloon based telescope

Brian Catanzaro, Thomas Brooks, Will Johnson, Brian O'Connor, Robert Woodruff, Ryan Edwards, Evan Racine, Lucas Paganini, Eliot Young, Nicolas Gorius, Leigh Elrod, Monica Hoffmann

Proceedings Volume 10705, 1070515 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312312

KEYWORDS: Finite element methods, Integrated modeling, Mirrors, Telescopes, Space telescopes, Optical instrument design, Wavefronts, Error analysis, Infrared telescopes, Observatories

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Proceedings Article | 11 September 2009 Paper

Planetary science experiments flying as hosted payloads on commercial satellites

Eliot Young, Cathy Olkin, Phillip Kalmanson, Russell Mellon, Malcolm Young

Proceedings Volume 7441, 74410X (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.826391

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Space telescopes, Telescopes, Satellite communications, Mirrors, Ultraviolet radiation, Charge-coupled devices, Sensors, Information operations, Space operations

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Proceedings Article | 10 July 2008 Paper

Sub-arcsecond pointing for balloon-borne telescopes

Alan Kraut, Kevin Swartzlander, Elton Wong, Graham Orr, Tony Wimer, Yusuke Nakaya, Mark Bullock, Eliot Young, Patrick Little

Proceedings Volume 7012, 70123Q (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789138

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Space telescopes, Stars, Mirrors, Charge-coupled devices, Control systems, Data acquisition, Imaging systems, Optical instrument design, Venus

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Proceedings Article | 10 July 2008 Paper

A balloon-borne stratospheric telescope for Venus observations

Eliot Young, Mark Bullock, Alan Kraut, Graham Orr, Kevin Swartzlander, Tony Wimer, Elton Wong, Patrick Little, Yusuke Nakaya, Russell Mellon, Lawrence Germann

Proceedings Volume 7012, 70121S (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.790032

KEYWORDS: Venus, Telescopes, Clouds, Space telescopes, Stars, Sun, Mirrors, Image resolution, Photodiodes, Infrared telescopes

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A terrestrial stratospheric telescope is ideally suited for making infrared observations of Venus' night hemisphere during inferior conjunctions. The near-space environment at 35 km altitude has low daytime sky backgrounds and lack of atmospheric turbulence, both of which are necessary for observing Venus' night side at the diffraction limit when Venus is close to the Sun. In addition, the duration of the observing campaign will be around 3 weeks, a time period that is achievable by current long duration flights. The most important advantage, however, will be the ability of a balloonborne telescope to clearly image Venus' night side continuously throughout a 12-hr period (more for certain launch site latitudes), a capability that cannot be matched from the ground or from the Venus Express spacecraft currently in orbit around Venus. Future missions, such as the Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter will also not be able to achieve this level of synoptic coverage. This capability will provide a detailed, continuous look at evolving cloud distributions in Venus' middle and lower cloud decks through atmospheric windows at 1.74 and 2.3 μm, which in turn will provide observational constraints on models of Venus' circulation. The science requirements propagate to several aspects of the telescope: a 1.4-m aperture to provide a diffraction limit of 0.3" at 1.74 μm (to improve upon non-AO ground-based resolution by a factor of 2); a plate scale of 0.1" per pixel, which in turn requires an f/15 telescope for 13 μm pixels; pointing and stability at the 0.05" level; stray light baffling; a field of view of 2 arc minutes; ability to acquire images at 1.26, 1.74 and 2.3 μm; and ability to operate aloft for three weeks at a time. The specific implementations of these requirements are outlined in this paper. Briefly, a 1.4-m Gregorian telescope is proposed, with stray light baffling at the intermediate focus. A three-stage pointing system is described, consisting of a coarse azimuthal rotator, a moderate pointing system based on a star tracker and ALT/AZ gimbals, and a fine pointing system based on analog photodiodes and a fine steering mirror. The science detectors are not discussed here, except to specify the requirement for moderate resolution (R > 1000) spectroscopy.

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