Publication Date:
2019-07-13
Description:
The Kepler mission monitors 〉 100,000 stellar targets using 42 2200 1024 pixel CCDs. Bandwidth constraints prevent the downlink of all 96 million pixels per 30-minute cadence, so the Kepler spacecraft downlinks a specified collection of pixels for each target. These pixels are selected by considering the object brightness, background and the signal-to-noise of each pixel, and are optimized to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the target. This paper describes pixel selection, creation of spacecraft apertures that efficiently capture selected pixels, and aperture assignment to a target. Diagnostic apertures, short-cadence targets and custom specified shapes are discussed.
Keywords:
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command and Tracking
Type:
ARC-E-DAA-TN1882
,
2010 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation Conference; Jun 27, 2010 - Jul 02, 2010; San Diego, CA; United States
Format:
application/pdf
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