Title :
FIRST/Planck mission
Author :
Mandolesi, N. ; Villa, Fabrizio
Author_Institution :
Ist. TeSRE, CNR, Rome, Italy
Abstract :
FIRST/Planck is a joint programme between the fourth European Space Agency (ESA) cornerstone mission (CS4), and the third European Space Agency (ESA) medium-sized (M3), of the `Horizons 2000´ science programme. The launch is planned for the first quarter of 2007. The `Far InfraRed and Submillimetre Telescope´, FIRST will perform photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 80-670 μm range in the far infrared and submillimetre part of the spectrum. The `Planck surveyor´, with its 1.5 meter off-axis telescope, is designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. The overview of the FIRST/Planck programme and the instruments description is reported with some emphasis on the telescopes used
Keywords :
astronomical photometry; astronomical telescopes; infrared astronomy; infrared imaging; radiotelescopes; space research; submillimetre astronomy; submillimetre wave imaging; submillimetre wave receivers; 1.5 m; 80 to 670 micron; CS4 cornerstone mission; FIRST/Planck mission; Planck surveyor; angular resolution; cosmic microwave background radiation; cryostat; far IR and submillimetre telescope; heterodyne instrument; imaging receiver; joint ESA programme; medium-sized Horizons 2000 science programme; multi-user observatory; off-axis telescope; photometry; programme overview; spectroscopy; whole sky measurements; Extraterrestrial measurements; Helium; Image resolution; Infrared spectra; Instruments; Optical design; Payloads; Space missions; Spectroscopy; Telescopes;
Conference_Titel :
Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 1999. IMTC/99. Proceedings of the 16th IEEE
Conference_Location :
Venice
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5276-9
DOI :
10.1109/IMTC.1999.777007
