Project Blue Post-processing Research Progress

Project Blue scientists Dr. Males and Alex Rodack.

We’d like to provide you with an update about Project Blue research being done at the University of Arizona to develop a mission performance simulator (MPS). The MPS will help the scientists and engineers to optimize the camera layout and observing strategy by simulating how well an orbiting planet can be detected around a star in the Alpha Centauri system. This also provides a hands-on experiential research opportunity for student participation. This wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of our IndieGoGo backers during last year’s campaign!

Meet Alex, a grad student working on Project Blue simulations

Photo: Alex at the 2018 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference in Austin, TX. Source here.

Alex Rodack is a PhD student at the University of Arizona in the College of Optical Sciences. Supervised by Project Blue scientist, Dr. Jared Males, astronomer at the University of Arizona, Alex has been working on the Project Blue data processing approach and mission simulator over the past few months.

So what does Alex, exactly do and why?

In a nutshell, Alex uses his computer that runs software designed to estimate the performance of the space mission under certain assumed configurations of the Project Blue telescope. By creating a Project Blue simulator, Alex and Dr. Males are seeking to predict the behavior of the telescope system and data quality over the two-year time period that the Project Blue will be in space observing Alpha Centauri.

Watch this short video of Alex and Dr. Males to learn more!

Stay tuned for more on other research updates and don’t hesitate to write to us if you have any questions.