Development of a calibration satellite for a CMB telescope flying in formation about L2 libration point

Abstract

The new generation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) telescopes have reached unprecedented levels of sensitivity. These telescopes measure several cosmological parameters with different levels of accuracy. In particular, considerable effort has been made to measure the B-mode polarization, which is related to the inflationary process of the universe. The power spectrum of this signal is about four orders of magnitude fainter than the CMB temperature power spectrum. Due to the signal weakness, the instruments must be subjected to calibration processes before and after launching. Additionally, data from the same sky area is gathered repeatedly to mitigate during data analysis the systematic errors induced by instruments. Celestial sources are often used as an external reference for calibration after launch, but these sources are not perfectly characterized. In this paper we study the concept of using a calibration satellite (CalSat) flying in formation with a CMB telescope in an orbit located at the second Lagrange point (L2). The CalSat is conceived as a micro satellite (10-100 kg) and serves as a perfectly known source of a reference signal to reduce the polarization angle measurement uncertainty. According to the scanning law followed by the telescope, the influence of the relative position between the spacecrafts in the calibration process is studied. The relative motion of the spacecrafts is considered with a simplified dynamic model. Based on the mission requirements, the different subsystems are sized and a preliminary design to evaluate the feasibility is obtained. The design has been carried out under the principle of reducing at minimum the impact on the telescope architecture. It would require to be launched along with the telescope to reach L2 at the same time and being able to communicate with the telescope. This new calibration element could have a huge impact on the performance of this kind of missions, providing a significant improvement in the measurements accuracy without requiring new and costly technological developments.