Concept study of the Heterodyne Spectroscopy Instrument (HSI) for the proposed Far-IR Spectroscopy Space Telescope (FIRSST)

The Heterodyne Spectrometer Instrument (HSI) is a heterodyne array receiver designed for the Far-IR Spectroscopy Space Telescope (FIRSST), a proposal recently submitted to NASA’s APEX call. FIRSST aims to study the processes of planet formation, to explore how water travels from the interstellar med...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wiedner, MC, Baryshev, A, Grimes, P, Tan, B
Format: Conference item
Language:English
Published: National Radio Astronomy Observatory 2024
Description
Summary:The Heterodyne Spectrometer Instrument (HSI) is a heterodyne array receiver designed for the Far-IR Spectroscopy Space Telescope (FIRSST), a proposal recently submitted to NASA’s APEX call. FIRSST aims to study the processes of planet formation, to explore how water travels from the interstellar medium to rocky planets and to investigates the growth of black holes and galaxies. FIRSST has two instruments. HSI is designed to study the trail of water and is able to observe the important low-lying transitions of water and its isotopes between 500 and 2000 GHz undetectable from the ground due to Earth’s atmosphere. HSI has a spectral resolving power of up to 107 (0.03kms-1 ), ideal for kinematic studies or line tomography. HSI has six 5-pixel-arrays covering 3 frequency bands and 2 linear polarizations, and is the first focal plane array receiver on a space mission. The concept study showed that a heterodyne array receiver can be build today with high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) components (≥6). HSI is a powerful and versatile instrument, with low-risk technology opening up the THz sky for new discoveries.