FIREBall-2: advancing TRL while doing proof-of-concept astrophysics on a suborbital platform
Abstract
Here we discuss advances in UV technology over the last decade, with an emphasis on photon counting, low noise, high efficiency detectors in sub-orbital programs. We focus on the use of innovative UV detectors in a NASA astrophysics balloon telescope, FIREBall-2, which successfully flew in the Fall of 2018. The FIREBall-2 telescope is designed to make observations of distant galaxies to understand more about how they evolve by looking for diffuse hydrogen in the galactic halo. The payload utilizes a 1.0-meter class telescope with an ultraviolet multi-object spectrograph and is a joint collaboration between Caltech, JPL, LAM, CNES, Columbia, the University of Arizona, and NASA. The improved detector technology that was tested on FIREBall-2 can be applied to any UV mission. We discuss the results of the flight and detector performance. We will also discuss the utility of sub-orbital platforms (both balloon payloads and rockets) for testing new technologies and proof-of-concept scientific ideas.
Additional Information
© 2019 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). This work was funded primarily through the APRA program for sub-orbital missions which funds the US side of FIREBall. CNES and CNRS provided support for the French side of the FIREBall collaboration. Additional support for detector development was provided by the SAT program and the Keck Institute for Space Studies. Prof. Hamden's work is partly supported by a Nancy Grace Roman Fellowship, as well as an NSF AAPF and Milliken Prize Fellowship from Caltech during her postdoc. Dr. Hoadley is supported through a Lee Prize Fellowship from Caltech.Attached Files
Published - 1098220.pdf
Submitted - 1905.00433.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 98114
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190822-132510733
- APRA
- Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Nancy Grace Roman Fellowship
- NSF
- Caltech
- Created
-
2019-08-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 10982