Sentinel-4 is an imaging UVN (UV-VIS-NIR) spectrometer, developed by Airbus Defence and Space GmbH under ESA contract in the frame of the joint EU/ESA COPERNICUS program. The mission objective is the operational monitoring of trace gas concentrations for atmospheric chemistry and climate over Europe. Sentinel-4 will provide accurate measurements of key atmospheric constituents such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, and aerosol properties. The instrument is a hyperspectral imager. It is composed of two imaging spectrometers covering the spectral ranges of 305 – 500 nm and 750 – 775 nm and a telescope which projects an image of the Earth onto the slits of the spectrometers. The instrument will be placed in a geostationary orbit, and a 3D spectral-spatial data-cube will be acquired thanks to the mirror scanning in East-West direction. The Telescope Spectrograph Assembly (TSA) represents the core of the optical system inside the Optical Instrument Module (OIM). It is composed of one common Telescope, two Spectrographs and two Focal Plane Assemblies integrated and aligned into a three-dimensional supporting structure. The TSA is later integrated into the main instrument structure which already includes the Scan Mirror Unit, Calibration Assembly and Front Baffle; thus completing the full optical chain. This paper gives an overview of the TSA integration and alignment activities for the Proto Flight Model (PFM) performed at the Airbus premises in Ottobrunn, Germany. It describes the alignment philosophy developed to meet the challenging optical requirements, including for example, the spatial co-registration between the two spectrometers and the spatial sampling distance on ground, after the transition from ambient laboratory conditions to the instrument operating conditions in geostationary orbit. The results of the optical tests in operating conditions produced by the Optical Ground Support Equipment are also included and discussed in this paper.
The EarthCARE satellite mission objective is the observation of clouds and aerosols from low Earth orbit. The payload will include active remote sensing instruments being the W-band Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) and the ATLID LIDAR. These are supported by the passive instruments Broadband Radiometer (BBR) and the Multispectral Imager (MSI) providing the radiometric and spatial context of the ground scene being probed. The MSI will form Earth images over a swath width of 150 km; it will image the Earth atmosphere in 7 spectral bands. The MSI instrument consists of two parts: the Visible, Near infrared and Short wave infrared (VNS) unit, and the Thermal InfraRed (TIR) unit. Subject of this paper is the VNS unit.
In the VNS optical unit, the ground scene is imaged in four spectral bands onto four linear detectors via separate optical channels. Driving requirements for the VNS instrument performance are the spectral sensitivity including out-of-band rejection, the MTF, co-registration and the inter-channel radiometric accuracy. The radiometric accuracy performance of the VNS is supported by in-orbit calibration, in which direct solar radiation is fed into the instrument via a set of quasi volume diffusers.
The compact optical concept with challenging stability requirements together with the strict thermal constraints have led to a sophisticated opto-mechanical design.
This paper, being the second of a sequence of two on the Multispectral Imager describes the VNS instrument concept chosen to fulfil the performance requirements within the resource and accommodation constraints.
GAIA1 is a global space astrometry mission, successor to the Hipparcos mission, launched in 1989. The GAIA spacecraft is being built by EADS Astrium France and is scheduled for launch in 2013. At a distance of 1.5 million km from Earth at Lagrangian point L2, slowly spinning around its axis, GAIA will monitor each target star about 100 times over a 5- year period, precisely measuring its distance, movement, and change in brightness. Through spectrophotometric classification, it will provide the detailed physical properties of each star observed: luminosity, temperature, gravity, and elemental composition. This massive stellar census will provide the basic data to tackle an enormous range of important questions related to the origin, structure, and evolutionary history of our Galaxy. The measurements performed with GAIA will be accurate to 24 microarcsec, about 100 times more accurate than Hipparcos. To achieve this extreme accuracy at an operational temperature of 100 K, the entire GAIA Payload is made out of Silicon Carbide (SiC).
The Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) will be flown on board the EarthCARE spacecraft, under development by the
European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The fundamental objective of the
EarthCARE mission is improving the understanding of the processes involving clouds, aerosols and radiation in the
Earth’s atmosphere. In addition to the MSI instrument, a Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), an Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID),
and a Broadband Radiometer (BBR) complete the payload of the EarthCARE satellite. By acquiring images of the
clouds and aerosol distribution, the MSI instrument will provide important contextual information in support of the radar
and lidar geophysical retrievals.
The MSI development philosophy is based on the early development of an Engineering Confidence Model (ECM) and
the subsequent development of a Proto-flight Model, the model to be launched on-board the EarthCARE satellite. This
paper provides an overview of the MSI instrument and its development approach. A description of the ECM and its
verification program is also provided.
The Gaia mission will create an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of more than one billion stars in our
Galaxy. The Gaia spacecraft, built by EADS Astrium, is part of ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and scheduled for
launch in 2013. Gaia measures the position, distance and motion of stars with an accuracy of 24 micro-arcsec using two
telescopes at a fixed mutual angle of 106.5°, named the ‘Basic Angle’. This accuracy requires ultra-high stability, which
can only be achieved by using Silicon Carbide for both the optical bench and the telescopes. TNO has developed, built
and space qualified the Silicon carbide Basic Angle Monitoring (BAM) on-board metrology system for this mission.
The BAM measures the relative motion of Gaia’s telescopes with accuracies in the range of 0.5 micro-arcsec. This is
achieved by a system of two laser interferometers able to measure Optical Path Differences (OPD) as small as 1.5
picometer rms. Following a general introduction to the Gaia mission, the Payload Module (PLM) and the use of Silicon
Carbide as base material, this presentation will address an overview of the challenges towards the key requirements,
design, integration and testing (including space-level qualification) of the Gaia BAM.
To measure the relative motions of GAIA's telescopes, the angle between the telescopes is monitored by an all Silicon
Carbide Basic Angle Monitoring subsystem (BAM OMA). TNO is developing this metrology system. The stability
requirements for this metrology system go into the pico meter and pico radian range. Such accuracies require extreme
measures and extreme stability.
Specific topics addressed are mountings of opto-mechanical components, gravity deformation, materials and tests that
were necessary to prove that the requirements are feasible. Especially mounting glass components on Silicon Carbide
and mastering the Silicon Carbide material proved to be a challenge.
To measure the relative motions of GAIA's telescopes, the angle between the telescopes is monitored by an all Silicon
Carbide Basic Angle Monitoring subsystem (BAM OMA). TNO is developing this metrology system. The stability
requirements for this metrology system go into the pico meter and pico radian range. Such accuracies require extreme
measures and extreme stability.
Specific topics addressed are mountings of opto-mechanical components, gravity deformation, materials and tests that
were necessary to prove that the requirements are feasible. Especially mounting glass components on Silicon Carbide
and mastering the Silicon Carbide material proved to be a challenge.
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