Goddard FKSI Group

The proposed FKSI (the Fourier-Kelvin Space Interferometer) is a pair of infrared telescopes attached together in space that could determine the chemical makeup of alien planet atmospheres. Such a mission could see planets inside the so-called habitable zone of stars, the region where the temperature is right for liquid water to exist.

The Team

• Bill Danchi (PI)
• Rich Barry
• Marc Kuchner
• Stephen Rinehart

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Animations

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FKSI deployment sequence. After FKSI is launched to Earth's L2 - a gravitationally stable point on the side of the Earth away from the Sun - it will deploy its systems sequentially in preparation for its science mission.	While observing a distant star, FKSI will typically be slowly rotated about its boresight allowing the 'shape' of the object to be sampled.	If the star has a companion - a planet or dim star - rotation about the boresight will yield a particular signature that may be analyzed by scientists here on Earth.

Links

• Planet Quest Missions - Keck Interferometer
• http://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/palomar/index.html
• The IOTA Project
• Exoplanet Community Forum Report 2009 - FKSI is a recommended strategic mid-sized mission in this report in Chapter 4 on "Infrared Imaging of Exoplanets".
• Detection of Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets Using the Fourier-Kelvin Stellar Interferometer
• The Fourier Kelvin Stellar Interferometer (FKSI): A review, progress report, and update
• The Fourier-Kelvin Stellar Interferometer (FKSI) - A practical infrared space interferometer on the path to the discovery and characterization of Earth-like planets around nearby stars
• Nulling interferometry: performance comparison between space and ground-based sites for exozodiacal disc detection