Carpenter, Kenneth

Contact Email: kgc@stargate.gsfc.nasa.gov
Institute: NASA's GSFC
First Coauthor: Carolus Schrijver
Institute: LMATC
Research URL:http://hires.gsfc.nasa.gov/~kgc
Subject Area: Instrumentation: Space Based
Waveband: Other (Please Specify Below)
Technique: Interferometry
Other: Ultraviolet-Optical
Presentation: Poster Display
Title: Imaging the Surfaces and Interiors of Other Stars: The Stellar Imager (SI) Mission Concept
Abstract: The Stellar Imager (SI) is envisioned as a large (0.5 km diameter) space-based, UV-optical interferometer. It is designed to image surface features and, through asteroseismology, sub-surface structures of other stars and measure their spatial and temporal variations. These observations are needed to improve our understanding of the underlying dynamo process(es) and enable improved forecasting of solar/stellar activity and its impact on planetary climates and life (see Schrijver and Carpenter, this volume). In this paper we discuss the performance requirements implied by the science goals and how these translate into specific design requirements on the mission architecture, and we present some preliminary visions for how the required observations (e.g., 1000 pixel, 100 micro-arcsec resolution, UV-optical images of the surface of nearby dwarf stars) for this ambitious project might be obtained.