PICTURE

PICTURE telescope at high altitude with earth in the background — The PICTURE-C telescope floating 137,000 feet above New Mexico.

Designed and Built at UMass Lowell

The PICTURE family of sub-orbital missions has been advancing technologies to directly image exoplanets and their environments for the past 20 years. The project began with two NASA sounding rocket flights (PICTURE and PICTURE-B), which flew in 2011 and 2013 and then progressed to a highly capable balloon-borne observatory, called PICTURE-C (shown above).

PICTURE-C flew twice from the NASA launch facility in New Mexico and demonstrated many of the key technologies required to image exoplanetary systems from a balloon. The latest iteration, PICTURE-D, consists of a 60cm off-axis telescope coupled with a high-contrast coronagraph instrument. The job of the coronagraph is to selectively block the light of the host star to revel the faint signal of debris disks, asteroid belts, and exoplanets. PICTURE-D is scheduled for two launches from New Mexico in September 2025 and 2027.

PICTURE-C 2022 Flight from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Note: there is no audio in the video.

PICTURE-D Team

Name	Institution	Role
Christopher Mendillo	UMass Lowell	Principal Investigator
Supriya Chakrabarti	UMass Lowell	Co Investigator
Timothy Cook	UMass Lowell	Co Investigator
Schuyler Wolff	University of Arizona	Co Investigator
Karl Stapelfeldt	Jet Propulsion Lab	Co Investigator
Ruslan Belikov	NASA Ames	Co Investigator
Dan Sirbu	NASA Ames	Co Investigator
Eduardo Bendek	Jet Propulsion Lab	Co Investigator
Frans Snik	Leiden University	Co Investigator
David Doelman	Leiden University	Co Investigator
Eugene Serabyn	Jet Propulsion Lab	Collaborator
Hari Subedi	NASA Goddard	Collaborator
Susan Redmond	Jet Propulsion Lab	Collaborator
Leonid Pogorelyuk	Rensselaer Polytech	Collaborator
Jason Martel	UMass Lowell	Lead Mechanical Engineer
Joseph Antas	UMass Lowell	Lead Electrical Engineer
Kuravi Hewawasam	UMass Lowell	Research Scientist
Sunip Mukherjee	UMass Lowell	Post-doctoral Fellow
Ananya Sahoo	UMass Lowell	Research Scientist
Guangfeng Yu	UMass Lowell	Graduate Student
Michael Jones	UMass Lowell	Graduate Student
Joshua Fitzpatrick	UMass Lowell	Undergraduate Student
Jacob Hancock	UMass Lowell	Undergraduate Student
Michael Iacoviello	UMass Lowell	Undergraduate Student
Kevin Pelletier	UMass Lowell	Undergraduate Student
Jordan Orenberg	UMass Lowell	Undergraduate Student
Alejandro Granda Torres	UMass Lowell	Undergraduate Student
Sophia Yamanishi	Rensselaer Polytech	Undergraduate Student
Nicholas Holbrook	Sutton, Massachusetts	Highschool Student
Arushi Vora	Westborough, Massachusetts	Highschool Student
Ed Udinski	NASA Wallops	Wallops ArcSecond Pointer
Jim Lanzi	NASA Wallops	Wallops ArcSecond Pointer

PICTURE Publications

2025

The PICTURE-D exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: pre-flight laboratory coronagraph demonstration, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Mukherjee, S. K., Sahoo, A., Martel, J. F., Potter, T., Yu, G., Jones, M., Fitzpatrick, J. D., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Snik, F., Doelman, D. S., Sirbu, D., Belikov, R., Stapelfeldt, K., Redmond, S. F., Wolff, S. G., Pogorelyuk, L., Yamanishi, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
Convolutional neural network low-order wavefront control for PICTURE-D, Jones, M., Mendillo, C. B., Proceedings of the SPIE
Progress in developing PICTURE-D polarimeter: a polarimeter for characterizing debris disk properties, Yu, G., Mendillo, C. B., Doelman, D. S., Proceedings of the SPIE
Use of a liquid crystal display panel as a phase-only spatial light modulator for high order wavefront control, Hewawasam, K., Martel, J. F., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Mendillo, C. B., Proceedings of the SPIE

2023

Balloon flight demonstration of coronagraph focal plane wavefront correction with PICTURE-C, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Potter, T., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS)
The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: second flight results and the transition to a new mission, PICTURE-D, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Potter, T., Mukherjee, Sunip K., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Snik, F., Doelman, D. S., Sirbu, D., Belikov, R., Bendek, E., Stapelfeldt, K., Wolff, S. G., Proceedings of the SPIE
Reflective lyot stop low-order wavefront control for future large space telescope coronagraphs, Mendillo, C. B., Ashcraft, J. N., Derby, K. Z., Douglas, E. S., Kim, D., Males, J. R., Proceedings of the SPIE
The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: a refactored thermal model and framework for an end-to-end model for balloon borne coronagraphs, Potter, T., Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2022

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: laboratory coronagraph demonstrations of high-contrast imaging and low-order wavefront control, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Potter, T., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
STOP model implementation for the PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission, progress report I: thermal modeling and comparison with flight data, Potter, T., Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2021

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: First flight results and second flight preparation, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Potter, T., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
Dual-polarization electric field conjugation and applications for vector vortex coronagraphs, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Potter, T., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Snik, F., Doelman, D. S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2020

Microelectromechanical deformable mirror development for high-contrast imaging, part 1: miniaturized, flight-capable control electronics, Bendek, E. A., Ruane, G. J., Prada, C. M., Mendillo, C. B., Riggs, A. J. E., Serabyn, E., Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS)
The PICTURE-C MKID camera, Swimmer, N. J., Mazin, B. A., Bockstiegel, C., Bailey, J. I., Coiffard, G., Daal, M., Davis, K., Fruitwala, N., Lipartito, I., Smither, J., Steiger, S., Zobrist, N., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Mendillo, C. B., Martel, J., Hewawasam, K., Proceedings of the SPIE

2019

Polarization aberration analysis for the PICTURE-C exoplanetary coronagraph, Mendillo, C. B., Howe, G. A., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS)
The PICTURE-C exoplanetary direct imaging balloon mission: first flight preparation, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Howe, G. A., Martel, J., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
Decoupling the image-plane and low-order wavefront sensors for the PICTURE-C coronagraph, Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Howe, G. A., Martel, J., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
The low-order wavefront control system for the PICTURE-C mission: deformable mirror anti-aliasing through temporal dithering, Hewawasam, K., Mendillo, C. B., Howe, G. A., Martel, J., Finn. S. C., Cook, T. A., Charton, J., Mahiou, P., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2018

Wavefront sensing in space: flight demonstration II of the PICTURE sounding rocket payload, Douglas, E. S., Mendillo, C. B., Cook, T. A., Cahoy, K. L., Chakrabarti, S., Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS)

2017

Optical tolerances for the PICTURE-C mission: error budget for electric field conjugation, beam walk, surface scatter, and polarization aberration, Mendillo, C. B., Howe, G. A., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Finn. S. C., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
The low-order wavefront control system for the PICTURE-C mission: high-speed image acquisition and processing, Hewawasam, K., Howe, G. A., Mendillo, C. B., Martel, J., Finn. S. C., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE
The low-order wavefront control system for the PICTURE-C mission: preliminary testbed results from the Shack-Hartmann sensor, Howe, G. A., Mendillo, C. B., Hewawasam, K., Martel, J., Finn. S. C., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2016

Planet Imaging Coronagraphic Technology Using a Reconfigurable Experimental Base (PICTURE-B): The Second in the Series of Suborbital Exoplanet Experiments, Chakrabarti, S., Mendillo, C. B., Cook, T. A., Martel, J. F., Finn, S. C., Howe, G. A., Hewawasam, K., Douglas, E. S., Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation (JAI)
Wavefront sensing in space from the PICTURE-B sounding rocket, Douglas, E. S., Mendillo, C. B., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2015

Planetary Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Recoverable Experiment-Coronagraph (PICTURE-C), Cook, T. A., Cahoy, K., Chakrabarti, S., Douglas, E. S., Finn, S. C., Kuchner, M., Lewis, N., Marinan, A., Martel, J., Mawet, D., Mazin, B., Meeker, S. R., Mendillo, C. B., Serabyn, G., Stuchlik, D., Swain, M., Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS)
The low-order wave front sensor for the PICTURE-C mission, Mendillo, C. B., Brown, J., Martel, J. F., Howe, G. A., Hewawasam, K., Finn, S. C., Cook, T. A., Chakrabarti, S., Douglas, E. S., Mawet, D., Guyon, O., Singh, G., Lozi, J., Cahoy, K., L., Marinan, A. D., Proceedings of the SPIE
End-to-end simulation of high-contrast imaging systems: methods and results for the PICTURE mission family, Douglas, E. S., Hewasawam, K., Mendillo, C. B., Cahoy, K. L., Cook, T. A., Finn, S. C., Howe, G. A., Kuchner, M. J., Lewis, N. K., Marinan, A. D., Mawet, D., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2012

Flight demonstration of a milliarcsecond pointing system for direct exoplanet imaging, Mendillo, C. B., Chakrabarti, S., Cook, T. A., Hicks, B. A., Lane, B. F., Applied Optics
PICTURE: a sounding rocket experiment for direct imaging of an extrasolar planetary environment, Mendillo, C. B., Hicks, B. A., Cook, T. A., Bifano, T. G., Content, D. A., Lane, B. F., Levine, B. M., Rabin, D., Rao, S. R., Samuele, R., Schmidtlin, E., Shao, M., Wallace, J. K., Chakrabarti, S., Proceedings of the SPIE

2008

Path length control in a nulling coronagraph with a MEMS deformable mirror and a calibration interferometer, Rao, S. R., Wallace, J. K., Samuele, R., Chakrabarti, S., Cook, T. A.,Hicks, B. A., Jung, P., Lane, B. F., Levine, B. M., Mendillo, C. B., Schmidtlin, E., Shao, M., Stewart, J. B., Proceedings of the SPIE