WaveDriver: a Laser Guide Star AO System for HWO

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gerard, Benjamin L., Geringer-Sameth, Alex, Sengupta, Aditya R., Perloff, Alexx, Sanchez, Dominic F., Waswa, Peter, Laguna, Cesar, Jensen-Clem, Rebecca, Poyneer, Lisa, Eckart, Megan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916023372873728
author Gerard, Benjamin L.
Geringer-Sameth, Alex
Sengupta, Aditya R.
Perloff, Alexx
Sanchez, Dominic F.
Waswa, Peter
Laguna, Cesar
Jensen-Clem, Rebecca
Poyneer, Lisa
Eckart, Megan
author_facet Gerard, Benjamin L.
Geringer-Sameth, Alex
Sengupta, Aditya R.
Perloff, Alexx
Sanchez, Dominic F.
Waswa, Peter
Laguna, Cesar
Jensen-Clem, Rebecca
Poyneer, Lisa
Eckart, Megan
contents Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) presents a key challenge for technology development in the coming years, requiring a $>$ $100\times$ more stable system than \textit{JWST}. WaveDriver is a concept for a laser guide star spacecraft coupled to an adaptive optics (AO) system onboard HWO that would enable HWO to reach its picometer-level wavefront stability requirements while relaxing other HWO subsystem requirements. At LLNL and UCSC we are revisiting the concept initially proposed by Douglas et al.\ (2019). We present key results key initial results from the first phase of our project, including (1) AO control developments, including with Linear Quadratic Gaussian control and machine learning, (2) AO wavefront sensor (WFS) trade study simulations, and (3) simulations of a photonic lantern natural guide star WFS. A key finding from our work is that WaveDriver could be needed to enable HWO's primary mirror segment stability and/or low order wavefront stability requirements.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_18723
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle WaveDriver: a Laser Guide Star AO System for HWO
Gerard, Benjamin L.
Geringer-Sameth, Alex
Sengupta, Aditya R.
Perloff, Alexx
Sanchez, Dominic F.
Waswa, Peter
Laguna, Cesar
Jensen-Clem, Rebecca
Poyneer, Lisa
Eckart, Megan
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) presents a key challenge for technology development in the coming years, requiring a $>$ $100\times$ more stable system than \textit{JWST}. WaveDriver is a concept for a laser guide star spacecraft coupled to an adaptive optics (AO) system onboard HWO that would enable HWO to reach its picometer-level wavefront stability requirements while relaxing other HWO subsystem requirements. At LLNL and UCSC we are revisiting the concept initially proposed by Douglas et al.\ (2019). We present key results key initial results from the first phase of our project, including (1) AO control developments, including with Linear Quadratic Gaussian control and machine learning, (2) AO wavefront sensor (WFS) trade study simulations, and (3) simulations of a photonic lantern natural guide star WFS. A key finding from our work is that WaveDriver could be needed to enable HWO's primary mirror segment stability and/or low order wavefront stability requirements.
title WaveDriver: a Laser Guide Star AO System for HWO
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18723