SPRITE (Supernova Remnants and Proxies for Reionization Testbed Experiment) is a 12U CubeSat mission funded by NASA and led by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The payload will house the first sub-arcminute resolution Far-Ultraviolet (FUV) long-slit spectrograph with access to the Lyman UV (912 − 1216 Å), enabled by new enhanced lithium fluoride coatings and an ultra-low-noise photon-counting microchannel plate (MCP) detector. The scientific mission has two main components: constraining the escape fraction of ionizing Lyman-Continuum (LyC) radiation from low-redshift galaxies (0.14 ≤ z ≤ 0.4) and measuring feedback from nearby star forming regions and supernova remnants. Enabling the scientific mission are two distinct observing modes. For the faintest sources, we will operate the MCP detector in photon-counting mode. For brighter sources, we will operate the MCP in an accumulation / integration mode. For extended sources we will collate multiple pointings of the long slit, stepping across the field of view in a ‘push broom’ mapping to create 3D spectroscopic cubes. SPRITE will also take weekly calibration data to characterize the degradation of the coatings and detector. We present these observing modes along with the data acquisition and processing pipeline required to enable scientific analysis on the ground.
The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U NASA CubeSat carrying on board a low-resolution (R ∼ 2000 to 3000), near-UV (2500 to 3300 Å) spectrograph. It has a rectangular primary Cassegrain telescope to maximize the collecting area. CUTE, which is planned for launch in spring 2020, is designed to monitor transiting extra-solar planets orbiting bright, nearby stars, aiming at improving our understanding of planet atmospheric escape and star–planet interaction processes. We present here the CUTE data simulator, which we complemented with a basic data reduction pipeline. This pipeline will be then updated once the final CUTE data reduction pipeline is developed. We show here the application of the simulator to the HD209458 system and a first estimate of the precision on the measurement of the transit depth as a function of temperature and magnitude of the host star. We also present estimates of the effect of spacecraft jitter on the final spectral resolution. The simulator has been developed considering also scalability and adaptability to other missions carrying on board a long-slit spectrograph. The data simulator will be used to inform the CUTE target selection, choose the spacecraft and instrument settings for each observation, and construct synthetic CUTE wavelength-dependent transit light curves on which to develop the CUTE data reduction pipeline.
The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a near-UV (NUV), 6U CubeSat designed to characterize the interaction between exoplanetary atmospheres and their host stars. CUTE is dedicated to observing multiple transits of short period planets with a range of masses to measure the transit depths of atomic and molecular nearUV features. These observations will enable us to quantify as a function of wavelength the transit ingress, egress, and depth of exoplanet light curves in order to determine the presence of bow shocks and strong atmospheric mass loss. The CUTE optical system combines a novel rectangular Cassegrain telescope and a holographically-ruled, aberration-correcting diffraction grating. The high-throughput optical system is projected to obtain an average effective area of ≈24 cm2 , comparable to previous Explorer class missions (GALEX) in a CubeSat package. This proceeding provides an overview of the science motivation, the final telescope and spacecraft design, and an outline of the mission operation.
The Pesit/IIA Observatory for the Night Sky(PIONS) is a near UV imaging telescope to be flown on a small satellite. The instrument is a 150mm RC telescope that covers a wavelength range of 180-280 nm. We are using an intensified CMOS detector with a solar blind photocathode, to be operated in photon counting mode. The telescope has a wide field of view of 3 degrees and an angular resolution of 13”. We plan to point the telescope to scan the sky continuously along the sun pointing axis to look for variable UV sources such as flare stars, AGNs, and other transient events. We can detect objects as faint as 21 magnitude and perform their photometric analysis. Since the aperture and the effective area of the telescope are comparatively small, it can be pointed to relatively brighter parts of the UV sky which were not accessible to larger mission due to detector limitations.
The Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager (LUCI) is an innovative all-spherical mirrors telescope, proposed to fly as a scientific UV imaging payload on a lunar mission in collaboration with Indian Aerospace Company-TeamIndus, Axiom Research Labs Pvt. Ltd. Observations from the Moon provide a unique opportunity to observe the sky from a stable platform far above the Earths atmosphere. LUCI will observe at a fixed elevation angle and will detect stars in the near ultraviolet (200-320 nm) to a limiting magnitude of 12 AB, with a field of view of around 0.5 degrees. The primary science goal is to search for transient sources and flag them for further study. The instrument has been assembled in the class 1000 clean room at the M.G.K Menon Laboratory for Space Sciences. Here we will describe the optomechanical assembly procedures we have carried out during the optical alignment and integration of the payload. Opto-mechanical alignment of the instrument was carried out by using alignment telescope cum autocollimator (for coarse alignment) and ZYGO interferometer (fine alignment). We will also discuss the ground calibration tests performed on the assembled telescope. The results from the ground calibration activities will help in establishing the full calibration matrix of the instrument once operational.
The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U NASA CubeSat carrying a low-resolution (R ≈ 3000), near-ultraviolet (255 – 330 nm) spectrograph fed by a rectangular primary Cassegrain. CUTE, is planned for launch in spring 2020 and it will monitor transiting extra-solar planets to study atmospheric escape. We present here the CUTE data simulator, which is a versatile tool easily adaptable to any other mission performing singleslit spectroscopy and carrying on-board a CCD detector. We complemented the data simulator with a data reduction pipeline capable of performing a rough reduction of the simulated data. This pipeline will then be updated once the final CUTE data reduction pipeline will be fully developed. We further briefly discuss our plans for the development of a CUTE data reduction pipeline. The data simulator will be used to inform the target selection, improve the preliminary signal-to-noise calculator, test the impact on the data of deviations from the nominal instrument characteristics, identify the best spacecraft orientation for the observation of each target and construct synthetic data to train the science team in the data analysis prior to launch.
Spatial heterodyne spectroscopy (SHS) is an interferometric technique similar to the Fourier transform spectroscopy with heritage from the Michelson interferometer. An imaging detector is used at the output of an SHS to record the spatially heterodyned interference pattern. The spectrum of the source is obtained by Fourier transforming the recorded interferogram. The merits of the SHS—its design, including the absence of moving parts, compactness, high throughput, high SNR, and instantaneous spectral measurements—make it suitable for space as well as for ground observatories. The small bandwidth limitation of the SHS can be overcome by building it in tunable configuration [tunable spatial heterodyne spectrometer (TSHS)]. We describe the design, development, and simulation of a TSHS in refractive configuration suitable for optical wavelength regime. Here we use a beam splitter to split the incoming light compared with all-reflective SHS where a reflective grating does the beam splitting. Hence, the alignment of this instrument is simple compared with all-reflective SHS where a fold mirror and a roof mirror are used to combine the beam. This instrument is intended to study faint diffuse extended celestial objects with a resolving power above 20,000 and can cover a wavelength range from 350 to 700 nm by tuning. It is compact and rugged compared with other instruments having similar configurations.
We describe the development and implementation of a light-weight, fully autonomous 2-axis pointing and stabilization system designed for balloon-borne astronomical payloads. The system is developed using off-the-shelf components such as Arduino Uno controller, HMC 5883L magnetometer, MPU-9150 inertial measurement unit, and iWave GPS receiver unit. It is a compact and rugged system which can also be used to take images/video in a moving vehicle or in real photography. The system performance is evaluated from the ground, as well as in conditions simulated to imitate the actual flight by using a tethered launch.
The ultraviolet (UV) window has been largely unexplored through balloons for astronomy. We discuss here the development of a compact near-UV spectrograph with fiber optics input for balloon flights. It is a modified Czerny-Turner system built using off-the-shelf components. The system is portable and scalable to different telescopes. The use of reflecting optics reduces the transmission loss in the UV. It employs an image-intensified CMOS sensor, operating in photon counting mode, as the detector of choice. A lightweight pointing system developed for stable pointing to observe astronomical sources is also discussed, together with the methods to improve its accuracy, e.g. using the in-house build star sensor and others. Our primary scientific objectives include the observation of bright Solar System objects such as visible to eye comets, Moon and planets. Studies of planets can give us valuable information about the planetary aurorae, helping to model and compare atmospheres of other planets and the Earth. The other major objective is to look at the diffuse UV atmospheric emission features (airglow lines), and at column densities of trace gases. This UV window includes several lines important to atmospheric chemistry, e.g. SO2, O3, HCHO, BrO. The spectrograph enables simultaneous measurement of various trace gases, as well as provides better accuracy at higher altitudes compared to electromechanical trace gas measurement sondes. These lines contaminate most astronomical observations but are poorly characterized. Other objectives may include sprites in the atmosphere and meteor ashes from high altitude burn-outs. Our recent experiments and observations with high-altitude balloons are discussed.
We describe the characterization and removal of noises present in the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) MPU- 6050, which was initially used in an attitude sensor, and later used in the development of a pointing system for small balloon-borne astronomical payloads. We found that the performance of the IMU degraded with time because of the accumulation of different errors. Using Allan variance analysis method, we identified the different components of noise present in the IMU, and verified the results by the power spectral density analysis (PSD). We tried to remove the high-frequency noise using smooth filters such as moving average filter and then Savitzky Golay (SG) filter. Even though we managed to filter some high-frequency noise, these filters performance wasn't satisfactory for our application. We found the distribution of the random noise present in IMU using probability density analysis and identified that the noise in our IMU was white Gaussian in nature. Hence, we used a Kalman filter to remove the noise and which gave us good performance real time.
We have designed and developed a compact ultraviolet imaging payload to y on a range of possible platforms such as high altitude balloon experiments, cubesats, space missions, etc. The primary science goals are to study the bright UV sources (mag < 10) and also to look for transients in the Near UV (200 - 300 nm) domain. Our first choice is to place this instrument on a spacecraft going to the Moon as part of the Indian entry into Google lunar X-Prize competition. The major constraints for the instrument are, it should be lightweight (< 2Kg), compact (length < 50cm) and cost effective. The instrument is an 80 mm diameter Cassegrain telescope with a field of view of around half a degree designated for UV imaging. In this paper we will discuss about the various science cases that can be performed by having observations with the instrument on different platforms. We will also describe the design, development and the current state of implementation of the instrument. This includes opto-mechanical and electrical design of the instrument. We have adopted an all spherical optical design which would make the system less complex to realize and a cost effective solution compared to other telescope configuration. The structural design has been chosen in such a way that it will ensure that the instrument could withstand all the launch load vibrations. An FPGA based electronics board is used for the data acquisition, processing and CCD control. We will also brie y discuss about the hardware implementation of the detector interface and algorithms for the detector readout and data processing.
We are developing a compact UV Imager using light weight components, that can be own on a small CubeSat or a balloon platform. The system has a lens-based optics that can provide an aberration-free image over a wide field of view. The backend instrument is a photon counting detector with off-the-shelf MCP, CMOS sensor and electronics. We are using a Z-stack MCP with a compact high voltage power supply and a phosphor screen anode, which is read out by a CMOS sensor and the associated electronics. The instrument can be used to observe solar system objects and detect bright transients from the upper atmosphere with the help of CubeSats or high altitude balloons. We have designed the imager to be capable of working in direct frame transfer mode as well in the photon-counting mode for single photon event detection. The identification and centroiding of each photon event are done using an FPGA-based data acquisition and real-time processing system.
Small and compact scientific payloads may be easily designed constructed and own on high altitude balloons. Despite the fact that large orbital observatories provide accurate observations and statistical studies of remote and/or faint space sources, small telescopes on board balloons or rockets are still attractive because of their low cost and rapid response time. We describe here a near ultraviolet (NUV) spectrograph designed to be own on a high{altitude balloon platform. Our basic optical design is a modified Czerny-Turner system using off the shelf optics. We compare different methods of aberration corrections in such a system. We intend the system to be portable and scalable to different telescopes. The use of reflecting optics reduces the transmission loss in UV. We plan on using an image intensified CMOS sensor operating in photon counting mode as the detector of choice.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.