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Session 43 - HST Instruments & Other Missions.
Display session, Tuesday, January 14
Metropolitan Ballroom,
The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) is a second- generation instrument to be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during the February 13, 1997 on-orbit servicing mission. NICMOS will provide infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations of astronomical targets in the spectral range 0.8-2.5 microns.
Integration, testing, and ground-calibration of NICMOS was completed in September, 1996. Expected instrumental performance figures were ascertained in two extensive system level thermal vacuum calibration tests employing external radiometric flat- field, spectral/wavelength, and polarization stimuli. Optical performance was verified and quantified using the Refractive Abberated Simulator/Hubble Opto-Mechanical Simulator at Ball Aerospace. On-orbit operations and electro-mechanical interfaces were tested and verified in a series of activities carries out in the HST Vehicle Electrical and Systems Test facility at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The results of these calibrations and tests have been transferred to the Space Telescope Science Institute for general use in planning and analyzing NICMOS observations, and on- orbit check-out and calibration. We report here on major aspects of those elements of NICMOS instrumental and system performance, as determined from these tests and calibrations, which should be understood by potential users of the instrument.
Support for this work was provided by NASA through contract number NAS5-31289.
