Mission type Astronomy Mission duration 3 years (design) | Operator JAXA / ESA Launch mass 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) | |
Names Next Generation Space Telescope Website jaxa.jp/SPICA
esa.int/SPICA | ||
The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), initially called HII/L2 after the launch vehicle and orbit, is a proposed infrared space telescope, follow-on to the successful Akari spacecraft.
Contents
Background
The project is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the telescope will be launched on JAXA's next-generation flagship launch vehicle (H3). The Ritchey-Chrétien telescope's 2.5-metre mirror (similar size to that of the Herschel Space Observatory) is to be made of silicon carbide, possibly by the European Space Agency (ESA) given their experience with Herschel. Currently planned to be launched in 2025, the spacecraft's main mission will be the study of star and planetary formation. It will be able to detect stellar nurseries in galaxies, protoplanetary discs around young stars, and exoplanets, helped by its own coronograph for the latter two types of objects.
Description
It is intended to use a halo orbit around the L2 point; it is intended to use mechanical cryocoolers rather than liquid helium, allowing the mirror to be cooled to 7000450000000000000♠4.5 K (versus the 7001800000000000000♠80 K or so of a mirror cooled only by radiation like Herschel's) which provides substantially greater sensitivity in the 10–100 μm infrared band (IR band); the telescope is intended to observe in longer wavelength infrared than the James Webb Space Telescope.
SPICA will employ a 2.5 m diameter Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a field of view of 30 arc minutes.
Timeline
The mission has been planned for many years; the launch date as of 2005 was "early 2010s", though as of 2009 a great deal of hardware had been designed but very little built, the SPICA website indicates that in summer 2009 the mission is still at the conference stage, and the 2009 paper says 'within ten years'. An internal review at ESA at the end of 2009 suggested that the technology readiness for the mission was not adequate. In 2010, it was expected to be launched in 2018. In 2014, it was expected to be launched in 2025. As of 2016, the earliest possible ESA participation would be as the M5 mission, for a nominal launch date of 2029/2030.
Objectives
As in the name, the main objective is to make advancement in the research of cosmology and astrophysics. Specific research fields includes