DARWIN - The infrared space interferometer
01 January 2001
The major technical elements of the DARWIN mission are described. These are based on the analysis and design work carried out by Alcatel Space Juring the course of an industrial contract issued by the European Space Agency, fur the preliminary feasibility study of the mission. It is found that the initially chosen scientific and system requirements: of the DARWIN mission, including that corresponding to the highly challenging task of detecting and spectrally analysing `Earth-like' exo-planets orbiting nearby stars, can be satisfied. It has also been shown that a complementary `imaging capability' could be implemented. using the same beam-combining: optics as for the nulling mode of the interferometer. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques ct medicales Elsevier SAS.