This dissertation explores the design, testing, and implementation of cutting-edge spaceborne instrumentation through the investigation of three distinct projects: SPARCS, STRUVE, and EXCITE. The SPARCS astrophysics project focuses on the development of a thermal vacuum chamber for testing contamination-sensitive hardware, alongside the design of ground support equipment (GSE) tailored to SPARCS' performance requirements. STRUVE, a heliophysics CubeSat mission concept, is examined for its mechanical and thermal design strategies, as well as thermal sensitivity studies crucial for mission success. The EXCITE project, an infrared spectrometer balloon-based astrophysics mission, is analyzed for its opto-mechanical design and comprehensive coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) stress analysis. Throughout the dissertation, each project's challenges, innovations, and solutions are meticulously documented, providing insights into the intricacies and demands of space instrumentation design and testing. The introduction sets the stage by contextualizing the significance of spaceborne instrumentation projects and outlining the scope of the dissertation. The chapters present detailed examinations of SPARCS, STRUVE, and EXCITE, and discuss the engineering complexities and advancements achieved in each project. In conclusion, the dissertation reflects on the lessons learned, implications for future space missions, and the broader impact of SPARCS, STRUVE, and EXCITE on the field of spaceborne instrumentation. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse surrounding space technology innovation and underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

Direct imaging is a powerful tool in revealing the architectures of young planetary systems, clearly showing the structure of circumstellar disks. Circumstellar disks, similar to the asteroid belt, are critical elements of any planetary system, and the study of them is important to understanding planet formation. Disks around several main sequence stars have already been observed directly interacting with exoplanets in their respective systems. Imaging can help answer many of the key questions of how disks interact in their respective systems. The Gemini Planet Imager is a high contrast imaging instrument that has spatially resolved several circumstellar disks for the first time, many exhibiting tracers of ongoing planet formation or the presence of a perturbing exoplanet. With this new sample, population analyses of characteristics of disks can now be explored and compared to information at other wavelengths. Direct imaging is also a uniquely accessible tool in engaging students and the community in astronomy. In combination with a course-based undergraduate research experience, direct imaging has the ability to engage students in the process of doing research in a very accessible manner. In Chapter 1, I introduce the concepts related to circumstellar debris disks, further focusing on the sub-field of direct imaging and its value in understanding these systems and engaging students in astronomy. In Chapter 2, I present four images of newly-resolved debris disks in the Scorpius-Centaurus association, comparing their characteristics with many other spatially-resolved circumstellar disks within the moving group. In Chapter 3, I present a uniform analysis of debris disk structure using a consistent and empirically-informed modeling approach. In Chapter 4, I present my findings and experiences in developing and teaching a course-based undergraduate research experience for students in the country’s first online astronomy degree program centered on the direct imaging of brown dwarfs. In Chapter 5, I present my conclusions on the topics I have investigated and discuss future work within the field of direct imaging and its role in driving astronomy research and education forward.

Studying the interstellar medium (ISM) is the key to answering questions about how material that exists between the stars drives the evolution of galaxies. Current models for the ISM life-cycle exist, but several steps lack observational evidence. Inthis dissertation I present the work I completed in support of up-coming mission to further study the ISM. This work includes ancillary data analysis of the Carina Nebula for the upcoming balloon mission: astrophysics stratospheric telescope for high spectral resolution observations at submillimeter wavelengths (ASTHROS). I present a derived molecular gas map of Carina from Herschel dust continuum emission maps at wavelengths between 70-500 microns. I compare it to the distribution of atomic gas, using HI 21 cm data, and of multiple CO isotopologues for the J = 1 → 0 rotational transition. I use these data sets to separate the CO–dark and CO–bright molecular components to study their relative contribution to the total molecular gas mass budget in Carina. I studied the transition between atomic and molecular gas in this region, by deriving the molecular fraction as a function of position, and comparing it to theoretical models of this transition. I also present the flight hardware design, testing, and space qualification of the intermediate frequency (IF) harness for the galactic/extragalactic ultra long duration balloon spectroscopic terahertz observatory (GUSTO). The harness transmits signal via novel cryogenic flexible stripline based transmission lines operating from 0.3 - 6.0 GHz. I designed three sets of 8-channel ribbons with characteristic insertion loss of 3.07 dB/ft at 5 GHz while the line was at a temperature gradient between 20 K - 300 K. Missions like GUSTO make use of non-linear mixing elements to achieve down-conversion of higher frequencies into IF bands. The mixers have a temperature dependent impedance that is difficult to measure. The last chapters of this work detail my attempt to carry out in-situ vacuum cryogenic calibrations using industry standard commercial off-the-shelf calibration kits and cryogenic RF electro-mechanical latching switches. I present the complex impedance of a non-linear superconducting transmission line as measured with a cryogenic calibration.

In the upcoming decade, powerful new astronomical facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), and ground-based 30-meter telescopes will open up the epoch of reionization to direct astronomical observation. One of the primary tools used to understand the bulk astrophysical properties of the high-redshift universe are empirically-derived star-forming laws, which relate observed luminosity to fundamental astrophysical quantities such as star formation rate. The radio/infrared relation is one of the more mysterious of these relations: despite its somewhat uncertain astrophysical origins, this relation is extremely tight and linear, with 0.3 dex of scatter over five orders of magnitude in galaxy luminosity. The effects of primordial metallicities on canonical star-forming laws is an open question: a growing body of evidence suggests that the current empirical star forming laws may not be valid in the unenriched, metal-poor environment of the very early universe.

In the modern universe, nearby dwarf galaxies with less than 1/10th the Solar metal abundance provide an opportunity to recalibrate our star formation laws and study the astrophysics of extremely metal-deficient (XMD) environments in detail. I assemble a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies, all within 100 megaparsecs, with nebular oxygen abundances between 1/5th and 1/50th Solar. I identify the subsample of these galaxies with space-based mid- and far-infrared data, and investigate the effects of extreme metallicities on the infrared-radio relationship. For ten of these galaxies, I have acquired 40 hours of observations with the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA). C-band (4-8 GHz) radio continuum emission is detected from all 10 of these galaxies. These represent the first radio continuum detections from seven galaxies in this sample: Leo A, UGC 4704, HS 0822+3542, SBS 0940+544, and SBS 1129+476. The radio continuum in these galaxies is strongly associated with the presence of optical H-alpha emission, with spectral slopes suggesting a mix of thermal and non-thermal sources. I use the ratio of the radio and far-infrared emission to investigate behavior of the C-band (4-8 GHz) radio/infrared relation at metallicities below 1/10th Solar.

I compare the low metallicity sample with the 4.8 GHz radio/infrared relationship from the KINGFISHER nearby galaxy sample Tabatabaei et al. 2017 and to the 1.4 GHz radio/infrared relationship from the blue compact dwarf galaxy sample of Wu et al. 2008. The infrared/radio ratio q of the low metallicity galaxies is below the average q of star forming galaxies in the modern universe. I compare these galaxies' infrared and radio luminosities to their corresponding Halpha luminosities, and find that both the infrared/Halpha and the radio/H-alpha ratios are reduced by nearly 1 dex in the low metallicity sample vs. higher metallicity galaxies; however the deficit is not straightforwardly interpreted as a metallicity effect.

This dissertation details the development of an open source, frequency domain multiplexed (FDM) readout for large-format arrays of superconducting lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs). The system architecture is designed to meet the requirements of current and next generation balloon-borne and ground-based submillimeter (sub-mm), far-infrared (FIR) and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) astronomical cameras, whose science goals will soon drive the pixel counts of sub-mm detector arrays from the kilopixel to the megapixel regime. The in-flight performance of the readout system was verified during the summer, 2018 flight of ASI's OLIMPO balloon-borne telescope, from Svalbard, Norway. This was the first flight for both LEKID detectors and their associated readout electronics. In winter 2019/2020, the system will fly on NASA's long-duration Balloon Borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST-TNG), a sub-mm polarimeter which will map the polarized thermal emission from cosmic dust at 250, 350 and 500 microns (spatial resolution of 30", 41" and 59"). It is also a core system in several upcoming ground based mm-wave instruments which will soon observe at the 50 m Large Millimeter Telescope (e.g., TolTEC, SuperSpec, MUSCAT), at Sierra Negra, Mexico.

The design and verification of the FPGA firmware, software and electronics which make up the system are described in detail. Primary system requirements are derived from the science objectives of BLAST-TNG, and discussed in the context of relevant size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) considerations for balloon platforms. The system was used to characterize the instrumental performance of the BLAST-TNG receiver and detector arrays in the lead-up to the 2019/2020 flight attempt from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The results of this characterization are interpreted by applying a parametric software model of a LEKID detector to the measured data in order to estimate important system parameters, including the optical efficiency, optical passbands and sensitivity.

The role that magnetic fields (B-fields) play in shaping structures on various scales in the interstellar medium is one of the central areas of research which is carried out by sub-mm/FIR observatories. The Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi Method (DCFM) is applied to a BLASTPol 2012 map (smoothed to 5') of the inner ~1.25 deg2 of the Carina Nebula Complex (CNC, NGC 3372) in order to estimate the strength of the B-field in the plane-of-the-sky (B-pos). The resulting map contains estimates of B-pos along several thousand sightlines through the CNC. This data analysis pipeline will be used to process maps of the CNC and other science targets which will be produced during the upcoming BLAST-TNG flight. A target selection survey of five nearby external galaxies which will be mapped during the flight is also presented.

Jupiter’s moon Europa is an active target of research because of its unique geology and its potential for habitability. Europa’s icy chaos disrupts and transforms the previous terrain, suggesting melting is involved. Chaos occurs alongside several types of endogenic surface features. These microfeatures are under <100 km2 in area and include uplifts and domes, pits, spots, and hybrid features. The distribution of microfeatures is known in the ~10% of the Europa’s surface that are covered by the regional mosaics (“RegMaps”). The efforts to connect microfeature formation to any kind of heat transport in Europa are confounded because microfeatures are difficult to identify outside of RegMaps because of low image resolutions. Finding microfeatures outside of RegMaps would provide new observational constraints for microfeature formation models.

First, I mapped microfeatures across four of Europa’s RegMaps and validated them against other mapping datasets. Microchaos features are the most numerous, followed by pits, domes, then hybrids. Spots are the least common features, and the smallest. Next, I mapped features in low-resolution images that covered the E15RegMap01 area to determine error rates and sources of omission or misclassification for features mapped in low-resolution images. Of all features originally mapped in the RegMap, pits and domes were the least likely to be re-mapped or positively identified (24.2% and 5%, respectively). Chaos, spots, and hybrids were accurately classified over 70% of the time. Quantitatively classifying these features using discriminant function analysis yielded comparable values of accuracy when compared to a human mapper. Finally, nearest-neighbor clustering analyses were used to show that pits are clustered in all regions, while chaos, domes, and hybrids vary in terms of their spatial clustering.

This work suggests that the most likely processes for microfeature formations is either the evolution of liquid water sills within Europa’s ice shell or cryovolcanism. Future work extending to more areas outside of the RegMaps can further refine microfeature formation models. The detection of liquid water at or near the surface is a major goal of multiple upcoming Europa missions; this work provides predictions that can be directly tested by these missions to maximize their scientific return.

The development of new Ultra-Violet/Visible/IR range (UV/Vis/IR) astronomical instrumentation that use novel approaches for imaging and increase the accessibility of observing time for more research groups is essential for rapid innovation within the community. Unique focal planes that are rapid-prototyped, low cost, and provide high resolution are key.

In this dissertation the emergent designs of three unique focal planes are discussed. These focal planes were each designed for a different astronomical platform: suborbital balloon, suborbital rocket, and ground-based observatory. The balloon-based payload is a hexapod-actuated focal plane that uses tip-tilt motion to increase angular resolution through the removal of jitter – known as the HExapod Resolution-Enhancement SYstem (HERESY), the suborbital rocket imaging payload is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) delta-doped charge-coupled device (CCD) packaged to survive the rigors of launch and image far-ultra-violet (FUV) spectra, and the ground-based observatory payload is a star centroid tracking modification to the balloon version of HERESY for the tip-tilt correction of atmospheric turbulence.

The design, construction, verification, and validation of each focal plane payload is discussed in detail. For HERESY’s balloon implementation, pointing error data from the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory (STO) Antarctic balloon mission was used to form an experimental lab test setup to demonstrate the hexapod can eliminate jitter in flight-like conditions. For the suborbital rocket focal plane, a harsh set of unit-level tests to ensure the payload could survive launch and space conditions, as well as the characterization and optimization of the JPL detector, are detailed. Finally, a modification of co-mounting a fast-read detector to the HERESY focal plane, for use on ground-based observatories, intended to reduce atmospherically induced tip-tilt error through the centroid tracking of bright natural guidestars, is described.

At the start of this honors thesis project, a new telescope called the deca-degree optical transient imager (DDOTI) needed assistance to help it gather photometric data about Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). Contributions to help DDOTI produce scientifically ready reductions will be discussed.
First, performance assessment tests were run in order to prevent data backlog and optimize the way in which DDOTI reduces the data it collects. The results of these tests yielded a general framework regarding how DDOTI should reduce collected images depending on how many computer cores can be used. These tests also indicated that DDOTI’s alignment portion of the reduction code (ddoti_align) should be completed after every image is collected, while the other parts of the reduction software (ddoti_stack, ddoti_phot, ddoti_summary) should be run after every four images are collected.
Second, reductions created by DDOTI were inspected to determine if the telescope’s reduction software was working properly. Reductions were observed and indicated that two reduction related problems needed to be corrected by the research team before DDOTI would be ready for future scientific work. The first identified problem was that DDOTI’s reduction code was not properly correcting optical distortions for one of DDOTI’s two functional cameras. The second problem was that the reduction code was not correcting for atmospheric refraction. As a result, below zenith distances of approximately sixty degrees, ddoti_align was unable to align detected sources to their catalogue equivalents due to their distorted positions.
Third, code manuals were produced in both English and Spanish so that English and Spanish-speaking researchers working on DDOTI could understand how its reductions software reduces images. Functional flow chart diagrams were also produced only in English to graphically describe the flow of information through DDOTI’s reduction software.
These three contributions helped DDOTI to more accurately be able to observe GRBs. DDOTI’s improved reduction abilities were confirmed by a produced report about GRB 190129B after a 10-hour observation, and by the fact that DDOTI could accurately observed asteroid fields. In addition, code manuals and functional flow chart diagrams were all produced by the end of this project.

This thesis contains an overview, as well as the history of optical interferometers. A new approach to interferometric measurements of stars is proposed and explored. Modern updates to the classic techniques are described along with some theoretical derivations showing why the method of single photon counting shows significant promise relative to the currently used amplitude interferometry.

Description of a modular intensity interferometer system using commercially available single-photon detectors is given. Calculations on the sensitivity and \emph{uv}-plane coverage using these modules mounted on existing telescopes on Kitt Peak, Arizona is presented.

Determining fundamental stellar properties is essential for testing models of stellar evolution as well as for deriving physical properties of transiting exoplanets. The proposed method shows great promise in measuring the angular size of stars. Simulations indicate that it is possible to measure stellar diameters of bright stars with AB magnitude <6 with a precision of >5% in a single night of observation.

Additionally, a description is given of a custom time-to-digital converter designed to time tag individual photons from multiple single-photon detectors with high count rate, continuous data logging, and low systematics. The instrument utilizes a tapped-delay line approach on an FPGA chip which allows for sub-clock resolution of <100 ps. The TDC is implemented on a Re-configurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware Revision 2 (ROACH2) board which allows for continuous data streaming and time tagging of up to 20 million events per second. The functioning prototype is currently set-up to work with up to ten independent channels. Laboratory characterization of the system, including RF, pick up and mitigation, as well as measurement of in-lab photon correlations from an incoherent light source (artificial star), are presented. Additional improvements to the TDC will also be discussed, such as improving the data transfer rate by a factor of 10 via an SDP+ Mezzanine card and PCIe 2SFP+ 10 Gb card, as well as scaling to 64 independent channels.

Furthermore, a modified nulling interferometer with image inversion is proposed, for direct imaging of exoplanets below the canonical Rayleigh resolution limit. Image inversion interferometry relies on splitting incoming radiation from a source, either spatially rotating or reflecting the electric field from one arm of the interferometer before recombining the signals and detecting the resulting images in the two output ports with an array of high-speed single-photon detectors. Sources of incoming radiation that have cylindrical symmetry and are centered on the rotation axis will cancel in one of the output ports and add in the other output port. The ability to suppress light from a host star, as well as the ability to resolve past the Rayleigh limit, enables sensitive detection of exoplanets from a stable environment without the need for a coronagraph. The expected number of photons and the corresponding variance in the measurement for different initial contrast ratios are shown, with some first-order theoretical instrumental errors.

Lastly, preliminary results from a sizeable photometric survey are presented. This survey is used to derive bolometric flux alongside from angular size measurements and the effective stellar temperatures.