Exoplanet detection is a critical research direction in astronomy and space exploration in recent years. However, the detection and characterization of habitability of distant exoplanets demand the development of high-performance space telescopes, requiring the continuous increase in aperture size of optical systems. Due to the constraints of single large-aperture manufacturing technology, detection levels and volume and mass limitations of launch vehicles, it is difficult to exceed a certain aperture limit for monolithic imaging systems. Distributed synthetic aperture technology is an effective method to increase the effective aperture of telescopes, enhance their resolution, and improve their light-gathering capabilities. However, in distributed synthetic aperture imaging systems, due to the discrete distribution of sub-apertures, the system filling factor is low, resulting in incomplete frequency coverage and reduced image resolution. Therefore, it is crucial to achieve complete frequency coverage while simultaneously realizing a large equivalent aperture. This paper proposes several rotational synthetic aperture system designs based on distributed synthetic aperture combined with time-division sampling. The paper analyzes the influencing factors of the time-division rotational synthetic aperture system, demonstrating the possibility of achieving a large equivalent aperture and relatively complete u-v coverage using a smaller number of sub-apertures. This provides a reference for the development of next-generation distributed synthetic aperture systems.

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Design of Space-Based Time-Division Rotation Synthetic Aperture System

  • Gang Liu,
  • Tianbing He,
  • Zhihai Pang,
  • Xiangang Li,
  • Bo Zhai

摘要

Exoplanet detection is a critical research direction in astronomy and space exploration in recent years. However, the detection and characterization of habitability of distant exoplanets demand the development of high-performance space telescopes, requiring the continuous increase in aperture size of optical systems. Due to the constraints of single large-aperture manufacturing technology, detection levels and volume and mass limitations of launch vehicles, it is difficult to exceed a certain aperture limit for monolithic imaging systems. Distributed synthetic aperture technology is an effective method to increase the effective aperture of telescopes, enhance their resolution, and improve their light-gathering capabilities. However, in distributed synthetic aperture imaging systems, due to the discrete distribution of sub-apertures, the system filling factor is low, resulting in incomplete frequency coverage and reduced image resolution. Therefore, it is crucial to achieve complete frequency coverage while simultaneously realizing a large equivalent aperture. This paper proposes several rotational synthetic aperture system designs based on distributed synthetic aperture combined with time-division sampling. The paper analyzes the influencing factors of the time-division rotational synthetic aperture system, demonstrating the possibility of achieving a large equivalent aperture and relatively complete u-v coverage using a smaller number of sub-apertures. This provides a reference for the development of next-generation distributed synthetic aperture systems.