NASA Ames Contributions to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

• NASA’s Ames Research Center is developing critical software and hardware to enhance the performance and imaging capabilities of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
• Key innovations include the ROSALIA software for glare removal and Multi-Star Wavefront Control (MSWC) technology for imaging exoplanets in multi-star systems.

Glare Reduction with ROSALIA

• The Roman Space Telescope’s Wide Field Instrument is susceptible to image contamination from stray light, thermal background, and zodiacal light (sunlight scattered by dust).
• NASA Ames, in collaboration with Goddard Space Flight Center and IPAC/Caltech, developed ROSALIA (Roman Sky Analyst for Low Surface Brightness Imaging and Astronomy).
• This software identifies and removes light glints and diffuse background interference, allowing for cleaner, higher-resolution imagery necessary to study galaxy formation and cosmic evolution.

Multi-Star Wavefront Control

• While the Roman Coronagraph is primarily designed for single-star systems, researchers at Ames created MSWC to enable direct imaging of exoplanets around multi-star systems (e.g., binary systems).
• The technology utilizes custom light-blocking masks and algorithms to suppress light from multiple stars, creating a "dark zone" to reveal faint orbiting planets.
• These custom masks are integrated into the Roman Coronagraph’s flight hardware and could be activated following the initial mission phase.
• The team is particularly interested in studying the Alpha Centauri system, a nearby triple-star system where potential exoplanets have been identified.

Computational Support

• Experts from the Ames Advanced Supercomputing Division provide guidance on mission operations and data pipelines.
• They developed high-performance computing tools to simulate and validate the feasibility of MSWC techniques, ensuring that ground-based systems can efficiently process the telescope's complex scientific data.