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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Format: | Conference item |
Language: | English |
Published: |
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
2024
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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.
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