INFUSE: preflight performance of a rocket-borne FUV integral field spectrograph

Emily M. Witt; Brian T. Fleming; James C. Green; Kevin France; Alex Haughton; Dana Chafetz; Jack Williams; Takashi Sukegawa; Oswald Siegmund; Matthias Tecza

doi:10.1117/12.2677844

5 October 2023 INFUSE: preflight performance of a rocket-borne FUV integral field spectrograph

Emily M. Witt, Brian T. Fleming, James C. Green, Kevin France, Alex Haughton, Dana Chafetz, Jack Williams, Takashi Sukegawa, Oswald Siegmund, Matthias Tecza

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12678, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXIII; 1267808 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677844
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2023, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The INtegral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment (INFUSE), a sounding rocket payload under development by the Colorado Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Program (CUSP), will be the first far ultraviolet (100 nm to 200 nm) Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) in space. With access to part of the Lyman ultraviolet (100.0 nm to 121.6 nm), INFUSE will be able to study spectral emission lines such as O VI in extended objects at greater spatial resolution and coverage than has previously been possible. An F/16, 0.49 m Cassegrain telescope feeds the instrument. A 26-element image slicer provided by Canon, Inc. forms the basis for the IFS. Each reflective slice acts as a long-slit, creating 26 different channels. Each channel is re-focused and dispersed by one of 26 identical holographic gratings supplied by Horiba JY onto the same 94 x 94 mm cross-strip (XS) microchannel plate detector (MCP). This MCP, provided by Sensor Sciences, will be the largest MCP of its type ever flown in space and will be advancing high event rate photon-counting detector technology for future NASA missions. We discuss the process and results of aligning the telescope and instrument, with a focus on the method by which the 26 gratings are aligned with the image slicer. Additionally, we examine the challenges the large primary mirror presented when being mounted and coated for flight. The first flight of INFUSE is schedule for October 2023 when it will spectroscopically image the XA region of the Cygnus Loop at the interface between the supernova and the ambient ISM, studying shock fronts in the supernova remnant.

Conference Presentation

(2023) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Emily M. Witt, Brian T. Fleming, James C. Green, Kevin France, Alex Haughton, Dana Chafetz, Jack Williams, Takashi Sukegawa, Oswald Siegmund, and Matthias Tecza "INFUSE: preflight performance of a rocket-borne FUV integral field spectrograph", Proc. SPIE 12678, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXIII, 1267808 (5 October 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677844

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