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The study of exoplanets is one of the fastest growing sub-fields in astronomy, and in particular one question stands above the rest: "Is Earth the only planet to harbour life? Are we alone?" While there have been numerous proposed missions to answer this question, none hold as much promise as a mid-infrared (MIR) nulling space interferometer as it concurrently provides the contrast, sensitivity and angular resolution to characterise many Earth-sized planets inside their star’s habitable zone (HZ). In this thesis talk, I present advances towards making a MIR space interferometry mission, such as the Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) feasible. This comes in two parts: First, I introduce and discuss the ground-based pathfinder interferometer Pyxis, the only visible light combiner in the Southern Hemisphere which consists of three autonomous robotic platforms. These platforms are used as placeholders for satellites, where Pyxis demonstrates the metrology, pointing and fringe tracking precision needed for a small space interferometry mission. I also show some of the first light science results from our commissioning run. Secondly, I describe configuration and architecture options for a large-scale multi-aperture mission such as LIFE. Using the paradigm of kernel-nulling, I find that a pentagonal array of five telescopes is superior to the incumbent Emma X-array configuration in the photon limited regime. Taking this array configuration, I present a possible implementation of the beam combiner using an adaptive nuller and a cascade of beam splitters, as well as a discussion on a few alternative implementations. Together, this work demonstrates that formation-flying interferometry is indeed feasible, and is a step towards a future space demonstrator mission. |
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