Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 369
This version created on 05 October 2006

Architectures for TPF-I/Darwin


Oliver Lay, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Many different architectures have been proposed for the TPF-I and
Darwin missions over the last decade.  This talk will review a series
of nulling configurations, beginning with the simple Bracewell, and
including the linear dual Bracewell, OASES and Laurance designs, the
X-Array, and ending with the current leading candidates:  the
right-angled Three-Telescope Nuller and stretched X-Array.  I will
show how each stage in the evolution was driven by new insights and
understanding of the performance properties:  the need for phase
chopping, high-order nulls, modulation efficiency, the point spread
function, and the importance of instability noise.  

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