As one of the four cornerstones of its scientific program Horizon 2000, the European Space Agency is studying a far-infrared and submillimeter space telescope (FIRST) that will open to astronomical observations the 100 micron to 1 mm spectral region, virtually unexplored with a subarcminute angular resolution. The 3 to 4 m diam telescope will be diffraction limited at lambda = 300 micron or less. The expected lifetime of this system in orbit is five years of more. The model payload is composed of two focal instruments. The multifrequency heterodyne spectrometer will give a very high spectral resolution in the 400 to 630 micron wavelength range and around 300 micron. The far-infrared receiver (FIR) will be an imaging spectrometer covering the 100 to 400 micron range with spectral resolutions ranging from 3 to 104 obtained with a set of Fabry-Perot interferometers and filters. Arrays of photoconductors and bolometers are cooled at 1.5 and 0.15 K, respectively, by an open-cycle (3)He/(4)He dilution + Joule-Thomson expansion system developed to operate at zero gravity.


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    Title :

    FIRST: far-infrared and submillimeter space telescope, a major scientific project of the European Space Agency


    Additional title:

    FIRST:: Fern-Infrarot und Submillimeter-Raum-Teleskope, ein größeres wissenschaftliches Projekt der ESA


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Optical Engineering ; 33 , 3 ; 785-790


    Publication date :

    1994


    Size :

    6 Seiten, 2 Bilder, 5 Tabellen, 14 Quellen




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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