AstroBiology Explorer (ABE) MIDEX mission concept
| Autor: | Gary Mills, Craig R. McCreight, Thomas P. Greene, Benton Ellis, Sylvia Cox, Scott A. Sandford, William R. Purcell, Kimberly Ennico, Nick Gautier, Dennis J. Gallagher |
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| Rok vydání: | 2002 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Solar System Galactic astronomy media_common.quotation_subject Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Astronomy Cassegrain reflector Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics Large format Orbital mechanics law.invention Astrobiology Telescope law Sky Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Spectrograph Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics media_common |
| Zdroj: | SPIE Proceedings. |
| ISSN: | 0277-786X |
| Popis: | The Astrobiology Explorer (ABE) is a MIDEX mission concept under study at NASA's Ames Research Center in collaboration with Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Corp. ABE will conduct IR spectroscopic observations to address important problems in astrobiology, astrochemistry, and astrophysics. The core observational program would make fundamental scientific progress in understanding the distribution, identity, and evolution of ices and organic matter in dense molecular clouds, young forming stellar systems, stellar outflows, the general diffuse ISM, HII regions, Solar System bodies, and external galaxies. The ABE instrument concept includes a 0.6 m aperture Cassegrain telescope and two moderate resolution (R = 2000-3000) spectrographs covering the 2.5-16 micron spectral region. Large format (1024x 1024 pixel or larger) IR detector arrays and bandpass filters will allow each spectrograph to cover an entire octave of spectral range or more per exposure without any moving parts. The telescope will be cooled below 50K by a cryogenic dewar shielded by a sunshade. The detectors will be cooled to approximately 8K. The optimum orbital configuration for achieving the scientific objectives of the ABE mission is a low background, 1 AU Earth driftaway orbit requiring a Delta II launch vehicle. This configuration provides a low thermal background and allows adequate communications bandwidth and good access to the entire sky over the approximate 1-2 year mission lifetime. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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