NASA Postdoctoral Program - Phasing of the Habitable Worlds Observatory Mirror

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on the Habitable World Observatory, a NASA flagship mission designed to identify potentially habitable exoplanets and examine their atmospheres. The research involves aligning segmented telescope mirrors to produce wavefront errors on the order of nanometers with stability of pico-meters, using novel technologies such as edge sensors and laser metrology. Researchers will work on algorithms and instrumentation testing, potentially using ground-based segmented telescopes like Keck Observatory to validate system performance models. Areas of study include modeling the Keck telescope, its adaptive optics system, control systems, and science instruments, which would inform on-sky tests and potential control algorithms for the primary mirror and adaptive optics deformable mirror. The successful applicant would be part of the HWO team located at JPL and would collaborate with researchers at JPL, GSFC, Keck, and other partner organizations.