发表机构
Radboud University; SENER AEROESPACIAL; GMV AD.; University of Würzburg; Goethe Universität Frankfurt; Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie; European Space Agency; Serco Netherlands BV; Scaleout Systems; Alén Space; German Aerospace Center (DLR); Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC（拉德堡德大学; SENER航空航天公司; GMV AD.公司; 维尔茨堡大学; 法兰克福歌德大学; 马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所; 欧洲空间局; 塞尔科荷兰有限公司; Scaleout Systems公司; 阿伦航天公司; 德国航空航天中心; 安达卢西亚天体物理学研究所）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
SHARPEx 是演示星间 VLBI 关键技术的任务概念，通过两颗小卫星验证时钟同步、星上相关和亚波长定轨，为未来超高分辨率黑洞成像铺路。
AI 中文摘要
太空是利用甚长基线干涉测量（VLBI）对天体物理源进行超高分辨率成像的下一个前沿。地球尺寸的有限性以及高频段的大气吸收和湍流，阻碍了当前基于地面的事件视界望远镜对黑洞成像实现数量级的分辨率提升。像 SHARP 这样的两或三单元亚毫米波天基阵列将能够对黑洞薄光子环成像，并测量黑洞自旋和时空。在此，我们提出 SHARP 实验（SHARPEx）任务概念。SHARPEx 将演示星间 VLBI 的关键使能技术，包括两颗卫星之间的时钟同步、星上相关处理以及亚波长级相对轨道确定。SHARPEx 将由两个立方星或小卫星平台组成，搭载小型（约 1 米直径）天线，在厘米波长进行观测。虽然 SHARPEx 将是一个技术演示任务，但具有增强星间链路特性（距离和带宽）的 SHARPEx 型后续任务可能会以前所未有的分辨率和保真度对明亮的活动星系核进行成像。
英文摘要
Space is the next frontier for ultra-high resolution imaging of astrophysical sources with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). The limited size of the Earth and atmospheric absorption and turbulence at high frequencies prevent order-of-magnitude resolution improvements from current black hole imaging with the ground-based Event Horizon Telescope. A two or three-element submm space-based array like SHARP would image the thin black hole photon ring and measure the black hole spin and spacetime. Here, we present the SHARP Experiment (SHARPEx) mission concept. SHARPEx will demonstrate key enabling technologies for space-to-space VLBI, including clock syntonization between two satellites, on-board correlation, and sub-wavelength relative orbit determination. SHARPEx will consist of two CubeSat or SmallSat platforms carrying small (~1 m diameter) antennas, observing at cm wavelengths. While SHARPEx will be a technical demonstrator, a SHARPEx-type follow-up mission with enhanced intersatellite link properties (range and bandwidth) may produce images of bright AGN with unprecedented resolution and fidelity.
Comments16 pages, 5 figures. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2026, "Radio Telescopes, Technologies, and Methods" (Proc. SPIE Vol. 14153, paper 1415319), Copenhagen, Denmark, 5-10 July 2026
Journal refProc. SPIE 14153, 1415319 (2026)
