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This report describes the 2014 study by the Science Definition Team (SDT) of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission. It is a space observatory that will address the most compelling scientific problems in dark energy, exoplanets and general astrophysics using a 2.4-m telescope with a wide-field infrared instrument and an optical coronagraph. The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope as its top priority for a new large space mission. As conceived by the decadal survey, WFIRST would carry out a dark energy science program, a microlensing program to determine the demographics of exoplanets, and a general observing program utilizing its ultra wide field. In October 2012, NASA chartered a Science Definition Team (SDT) to produce, in collaboration with the WFIRST Study Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL, a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for an implementation of WFIRST using one of the 2.4-m, Hubble-quality telescope assemblies recently made available to NASA. This DRM builds on the work of the earlier WFIRST SDT, reported by Green et al. (2012) and the previous WFIRST-2.4 DRM, reported by Spergel et. (2013). The 2.4-m primary mirror enables a mission with greater sensitivity and higher angular resolution than the 1.3-m and 1.1-m designs considered previously, increasing both the science return of the primary surveys and the capabilities of WFIRST as a Guest Observer facility. The addition of an on-axis coronagraphic instrument to the baseline design enables imaging and spectroscopic studies of planets around nearby stars., Comment: This report describes the 2014 study by the Science Definition Team of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope mission. 319 pages; corrected a misspelled name in the authors list and a typo in the abstract

The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its top priority for a new large space mission. The report of the WFIRST-AFTA Science Definition Team (SDT) presents a Design Reference Mission for WFIRST that employs one of the 2.4-m, Hubble-quality mirror assemblies recently made available to NASA. The 2.4-m primary mirror enables a mission with greater sensitivity and higher angular resolution than the smaller aperture designs previously considered for WFIRST, increasing both the science return of the primary surveys and the capabilities of WFIRST as a Guest Observer facility. The option of adding an on-axis, coronagraphic instrument would enable imaging and spectroscopic studies of planets around nearby stars. This short article, produced as a companion to the SDT report, summarizes the key points of the WFIRST-2.4 DRM. It highlights the remarkable opportunity that the 2.4-m telescope affords for advances in many fields of astrophysics and cosmology, including dark energy, the demographics and characterization of exoplanets, the evolution of galaxies and quasars, and the stellar populations of the Milky Way and its neighbors., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, Companion article to the SDT report, arXiv:1305.5422, added pointer to WFIRST-AFTA SDT report and corrected line color description in Figure 2 caption

The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its top priority for a new large space mission. As conceived by the decadal survey, WFIRST would carry out a dark energy science program, a microlensing program to determine the demographics of exoplanets, and a general observing program utilizing its ultra wide field. In October 2012, NASA chartered a Science Definition Team (SDT) to produce, in collaboration with the WFIRST Project Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL, a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for an implementation of WFIRST using one of the 2.4-m, Hubble-quality mirror assemblies recently made available to NASA. This DRM builds on the work of the earlier WFIRST SDT, reported by Green et al. (2012). The 2.4-m primary mirror enables a mission with greater sensitivity and higher angular resolution than the 1.3-m and 1.1-m designs considered previously, increasing both the science return of the primary surveys and the capabilities of WFIRST as a Guest Observer facility. The option of adding an on-axis, coronagraphic instrument would enable imaging and spectroscopic studies of planets around nearby stars. This document presents the final report of the SDT., Comment: 190 pages, 118 figures, 15 tables, For a short summary of the report highlights, see arXiv:1305.5425, added pointer to the summary of this report and corrected line labels in the caption of Figure 2-2

NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is being designed to deliver unprecedented capability in dark energy and exoplanet science, and to host a technology demonstration coronagraph for exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy. The observatory design has matured since 2013; we present a comprehensive description of the observatory configuration as refined during the WFIRST Phase-A study. The observatory is based on an existing, repurposed 2.4 meter space telescope coupled with a 288 megapixel near-infrared (0.6 to 2 microns) HgCdTe focal plane array with multiple imaging and spectrographic modes. Together they deliver a 0.28 square degree field of view, which is approximately 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope, and a sensitivity that enables rapid science surveys. In addition, the coronagraph technology demonstration will prove the feasibility of new techniques for exoplanet discovery, imaging, and spectral analysis. A composite truss structure meters both instruments to the telescope assembly, and the instruments and the spacecraft are flight serviceable. We present configuration changes since 2013 that improved interfaces, improved testability, and reduced technical risk. We provide an overview of our Integrated Modeling results, performed at an unprecedented level for a phase-A study, to illustrate performance margins with respect to static wavefront error, jitter, and thermal drift.