A Proposed Heterodyne Receiver for the Origins Space Telescope
Journal article, 2018
The HEterodyne Receiver for the Origins Space Telescope (HERO) is a proposed design for a heterodyne focal plane array for a large space mission. The Origins Space Telescope (OST) is one of the four missions selected to be studied by NASA for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal survey. HERO is designed to observe the trail of water from the interstellar medium (ISM) to disks around protostars. In Concept 1, HERO provides continuous frequency coverage from 468 to 2700 GHz in five bands and a sixth band to cover 4700 GHz. Most bands include 2 × 64 pixels providing at least an order of magnitude higher mapping speeds than available with today's instruments. Receiver sensitivities are expected to be close to the quantum limit. HERO Concept 2, highly constrained by cost and denoted Little-HERO, includes four bands with continuous coverage from 486 to 2700 GHz and with focal plane arrays having only 2 × 9 pixels per band. Both of these THz receiver concepts will be described and the designs will be motivated by the science drivers, the space craft constraints and the latest technological developments. The HERO design builds on the highly successful Herschel/Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared, on Stratospheric Observatory for Far-Infrared Astronomy/upGREAT and many other heterodyne receivers, but surpasses these in terms of frequency coverage, array size and sensitivity, thanks to the latest technical advances. HERO can be considered an example of a new generation of heterodyne focal plane arrays for future space missions.
Array receivers
THz astronomy
far-infrared (far-IR) space instruments
heterodyne instruments
THz detectors
heterodyne receivers
Author
M.C. Wiedner
LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique et Atmospheres
Imran Mehdi
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
A. M. Baryshev
University of Groningen
Victor Belitsky
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
Vincent Desmaris
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
Anna Maria Digiorgio
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
J. D. Gallego
Yebes Observatory
M. Gerin
LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique et Atmospheres
P. F. Goldsmith
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
F. Helmich
University of Groningen
Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)
W. Jellema
Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)
University of Groningen
Andre Laurens
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
Christophe Risacher
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Max Planck Society
A. Cooray
University of California
Margaret Meixner
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
Johns Hopkins University
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology
2156-342X (ISSN) 21563446 (eISSN)
Vol. 8 6 558-571 8491320Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Aerospace Engineering
Infrastructure
Onsala Space Observatory
DOI
10.1109/TTHZ.2018.2876093