Report of the Joint Scientific Mission Definition Team for an infrared astronomical satellite
Abstract
The joint effort is reported of scientists and engineers from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States working as a team for the purpose of exploring the possibility of a cooperative venture. The proposed mission builds upon experience gained from the successful Astronomical Netherlands Satellite (ANS). This satellite will be in a polar orbit at an altitude of 900 km. It will carry an 0.6 m diameter telescope cooled with helium to a temperature near 10K. An array of approximately 100 detectors will be used to measure the infrared flux in four wavelength bands centered at 10, 20, 50, and 100 microns. Sources will be located on the sky with positional accuracy of 1/2 arcminute. The instrument should be able to investigate the structure of extended sources with angular scales up to 1.0 deg. The entire sky will be surveyed and the full lifetime of the mission of about one year will be necessary to complete the survey. Special observational programs will also be incorporated into the mission.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- May 1976
- Bibcode:
- 1976STIN...7819175.
- Keywords:
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- Astronomical Spectroscopy;
- Infrared Astronomy Satellite;
- Telescopes;
- Astronomical Netherlands Satellite;
- Cost Analysis;
- Cryogenics;
- Infrared Astronomy;
- Spacecraft Design;
- Spectroscopy;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles