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A.S. Kutyrev (Raytheon ITSS/NASA/GSFC), K.A. Blumenstock, A. Crites, B. Dean (NASA/GSFC), R.K. Fettig (Raytheon ITSS/NASA/GSFC), J. Ge (Penn State University), C. Hakun, S.H. Moseley, D.B. Mott, D.S. Schwinger, B.E. Woodgate (NASA/GSFC)
This instrument is being built as part of the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) development and new technology demonstration. The primary goal is to demonstrate that the microshutter arrays, currently being designed for the NGST NIR MOS, can achieve the performance required for faint astronomical object imaging and spectroscopy, in particular where wide wavelength coverage is required.
The instrument uses a 1024x1024 pixel InSb ALADDIN array. The instrument will have both imaging and spectroscopic modes, where the microshutter array will be used as a programmable selection mask. The field of view is 6'x 6' on the microshutter array of 512 x 512 elements. Each individual microshutter is imaged onto 2 x 2 detector pixels square. The unique feature of the instrument is extremely wide simultaneous wavelength coverage from 0.6 \mum to 5.5 \mum. There will be three spectral resolution modes: R = 100, 2000, 5000. To provide the required imaging quality at this extremely wide wavelength range and a large field of view, both reflective and refractive components are used in the design.
This instrument can be used for a wide variety of astronomical studies, in particular for Galaxy cluster redshifts, star formation rates, emission line nebulae and circumstellar medium. We also plan to use it for observing gamma ray burst afterglow spectra in support of the SWIFT and HETE2 missions. Another potential application is extragalactic SN Type Ia spectra for the universe acceleration measurements, and supporting preparation for the SNAP mission.
This project is supported by the NASA funding.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: kutyrev@gsfc.nasa.gov