The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) on Juno

Conference (2008, December 01)

Juno, a NASA New Frontiers mission, plans for launch in August 2011, a 5-year cruise (including a flyby of Earth in October 2013 for a gravity boost), and 14 months around Jupiter after arriving in August ... [more ▼]

Juno, a NASA New Frontiers mission, plans for launch in August 2011, a 5-year cruise (including a flyby of Earth in October 2013 for a gravity boost), and 14 months around Jupiter after arriving in August 2016. The spinning (2 RPM), solar-powered Juno will study Jupiter from a highly elliptical orbit, in which the spacecraft (for about 6 hours once every 11 days) dives down over the north pole, skims the outermost atmosphere, and rises back up over the south pole. This orbit allows Juno avoid most of the intense particle radiation surrounding the planet and provides an excellent platform for investigating Jupiter's polar magnetosphere. Part of the exploration of Jupiter's polar magnetosphere will involve remote sensing of the far-ultraviolet H and H2 auroral emissions, plus gases such as methane and acetylene which add their absorption signature to the H2 emissions. This hydrocarbon absorption can be used to estimate the energy of the precipitating electrons; since more energetic electrons penetrate deeper into the atmosphere and the UV emissions they produce will show more absorption. Juno will carry an Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) to make spectral images of Jupiter's aurora. UVS is a UV imaging spectrograph sensitive to both extreme and far ultraviolet emissions in the 70-205~nm range that will characterize the morphology and spectral nature of Jupiter's auroral emissions. Juno UVS consists of two separate sections: a dedicated telescope/spectrograph assembly and a vault electronics box. The telescope/spectrograph assembly contains a telescope which feeds a 0.15-m Rowland circle spectrograph. The telescope has an input aperture 40à 40~mm2 and uses an off-axis parabolic primary mirror. A flat scan mirror situated at the front end of the telescope (used to target specific auroral features at up to ±30° perpendicular to the Juno spin plane) directs incoming light to the primary. The light is then focused onto the spectrograph entrance slit, which has a 'dog- bone' shape 6° long, in three 2° sections of 0.2°, 0.05°, and 0.2° width (projected onto the sky). Light entering the slit is dispersed by a toroidal grating which focuses the UV bandpass onto a curved microchannel plate (MCP) cross delay line (XDL) detector with a solar blind UV- sensitive CsI photocathode, which makes up the instrument's focal plane. Tantalum shielding surrounds the detector assembly to protect the detector and the adjacent detector electronics from high-energy electrons. The main electronics box is located in the Juno vault. Inside are two redundant high-voltage power supplies (HVPS), two redundant low-voltage power supplies, the command and data handling (C&DH) electronics, heater/actuator activation electronics, scan mirror electronics, and event processing electronics. An overview of the UVS design and scientific performance will be presented. [less ▲]

A Test Cryostat for Herschel-PACS Mechanism

in SCHÜRMANN B. (Ed.) ESA-SP-467 (2001, September)

The PACS Grating Assembly consists of a flat ruled grating of 320x80 mm²; its positioning mechanism; and launch-locking system. The Grating Assembly is part of the PACS Focal Plane Unit (FPU) and is ... [more ▼]

The PACS Grating Assembly consists of a flat ruled grating of 320x80 mm²; its positioning mechanism; and launch-locking system. The Grating Assembly is part of the PACS Focal Plane Unit (FPU) and is operated at liquid helium temperature (4K). It is remote-controlled from the Detector & Mechanism Controller (DEC/MEC), which is located on the Herschel Service Module. The grating shall be capable of accurate positioning (4 arcsec) within a large angular throw (40 arcdeg) and restricted dissipation to the 4K heat sink (< 5 mW). The development of the Grating mechanism controller has urged the need for a cryogenic simulator of the Grating Assembly with regard to the large change in value of mechanical and electrical characteristics between room temperature and liquid helium temperature. The simulator consists of a functional prototype of the Grating Assembly and a dedicated helium cryostat with appropriate interfaces. The test cryostat is a homemade facility (CSL) designed to cool down the prototype (and subsequent models) to liquid helium temperature. The test set-up also provides relevant instrumentation such as cryogenic temperature read-out, electrical feedthroughs toward the payload and optical viewport. [less ▲]