ASTRO-F
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| ASTRO-F | |
 Artist's conception of ASTRO-F |
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| Organization: | JAXA |
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| Alternative names: | Akari |
| Wavelength: | infrared |
| NSSDC ID: | 2006-005A |
| Location: | Low Earth orbit |
| Orbit height: | 694.5 km |
| Orbit period: | 96.6 min |
| Launched: | 2006-02-21 |
| Launched from: | Uchinoura Space Center, Japan |
| Mass: | 955 kg |
| Telescope style: | Ritchey-Chretien reflector |
| Diameter: | 0.67 m |
| Focal length: | 4.2 m (189 ft) |
| FIS (Far-Infrared Surveyor): | far-infrared camera/spectrometer |
| IRC : Infra-Red Camera: | near-infrared camera/spectrometer |
| Website: | http://www.ir.isas.jaxa.jp/ASTRO-F/Outreach/index_e.html |
ASTRO-F (or Akari) is an infrared astronomy satellite developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in cooperation with institutes of Europe and Korea. It was launched on 21:28, February 21, 2006 UTC (06:28, February 22 JST) by M-V rocket into Earth polar Sun synchronous orbit. After its launch it was named Akari (あかり), which means "light" in Japanese.
Its primary mission is to survey the entire sky in near-, mid- and far-infrared, through its 68.5cm aperture telescope.
Its designed lifespan, of far- and mid-infrared sensors, is 550 days, limited by its liquid helium coolant. Near-infrared sensor will continue to operate after that with mechanical coolers.
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[edit] Design
ASTRO-F satellite consists of a cryostat and a bus module. A telescope and scientific instruments are stored in the cryostat and cooled by liquid Helium and mechanical coolers. The bus module takes care of house keeping of the satellite, attitude control, data handling, and communication with the ground system. The height and weight of the satellite are 3.7 meters and 952 kg, respectively. The cryostat and the bus module have independent structures so as to decrease heat inflow into the cryostat.
[edit] Telescope
The ASTRO-F telescope is a Ritchey-Chretien system with F/6.1. The focal length is 4200 mm and effective aperture is 68.5 cm. The entire telescope is cooled down to about 6K during observations. The aim of the cooled telescope is to suppress harmful thermal radiation radiated from telescope itself.
[edit] Instruments
ASTRO-F is equipped with two instruments; the FIS (Far-Infrared Surveyor) for far-infrared observations and the IRC (InfraRed Camera) for near and mid-infrared observations.
The FIS is the instrument chiefly intended to make an all-sky survey at far-infrared wavelengths (50 to 180 microns). The FIS is also used for pointing observations to detect faint objects or to perform spectroscopy using a Fourier transform spectrometer.
The IRC is composed of three independent camera systems. The NIR camera is assigned to near-infrared wavelengths in the 1.7 - 5.5 micron range. The MIR-S camera is assigned to shorter mid-infrared wavelengths over the 5.8 - 14.1 micron range and the MIR-L camera is assigned to longer mid-infrared wavelengths of 12.4 - 26.5 micron.
[edit] Mission plan
The operation plan is as follows.
- The first two months of the mission is the performance verification (PV) phase. In the following a half year, the FIS all-sky survey is preferentially performed (Phase 1).
- After Phase 1, ASTRO-F observes various objects in the pointing mode in addition to complementing the missed areas from Phase 1, until the liquid Helium is consumed.
- The near-infrared camera of the IRC can continue observations after the Helium expires, because the near-infrared camera can be used at the temperature kept by the mechanical coolers only.
[edit] Status
The British and Japanese project team members were awarded a Daiwa Adrian Prize in 2004 by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in recognition of their collaboration.
Due to the malfunction of sun-sensor after the launch, the ejection of telescope aperture lid was delayed, resulting the coolant lifespan estimate to be shortened to about 500 days from launch. However after JAXA estimated the remaining helium during early March 2007 observation time will be extended at least until September 9th.[1]
[edit] Results
- Mid August 2006: Akari finished around 50 % of the all sky survey.[2]
- Early November 2006: First (phase-1) all-sky survey finished. Second (phase-2) all-sky survey started on November 10, 2006.[3]
- The first infrared detection of a supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud
- Detection of mass-loss from relatively young red-giant stars in the globular cluster NGC 104
- Detection of the molecular gas surrounding the active galactic nucleus in the ultra luminous infrared galaxy UGC05101[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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| Earth Observation Satellites: Daichi | Akebono | In cooperation with NASA: Aqua | Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission | GEOTAIL | Under Development: GOSAT | Global Precipitation Mesurement | ||
| Communication, Positioning and Engineering Test Satellites: ETS-VIII | Kirari | Kodama | REIMEI | EGS | Micro Lab Sat 1 | Under Development: WWINDS | Quasi-Zenith Satellites System | Sohla-1,Sohla-2 | ||
| Astronomical Observation Satellites: Akari | Suzaku | Hinode | REIMEI | Under Development: ASTRO-G | ||
| Lunar and Planetary Exploration Satellites: Hayabusa | Under Development: SELENE | PLANET-C | BepiColombo (cooperation with ESA) | Cancelled : LUNAR-A | ||
| Human Space Exploration : ISS (cooperation) | H-II Transfer Vehicle | ||
| Completed Missions: YOHKOH | ASCA | HALCA | NOZOMI |
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