Goddard Space Flight Center
Planetary Systems Laboratory

Planetary Systems Laboratory

Two Columns

Instrumentation

A variety of instruments have been built in the Laboratory, with a focus on infrared systems. Some of these have flown on missions such as Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini, and New Horizons, while others are used at ground-based facilities. These instruments are managed and operated by the Laboratory, including mission planning and sequencing, as well as instrument operations. We are also developing the next generation of instruments to meet future mission requirements, including the development of new detectors and lightweight designs.

Infrared Radiometer Interferometer and Spectrograph (IRIS): mid to far-infrared Michelson spectrograph (4-55 microns) and shorter wavelength radiometer. Versions flew on both Voyager 1 and 2. http://pds-rings.seti.org/voyager/iris/

Composite Infrared Spectrograph (CIRS): mid to far-IR Fourier transform spectrometer on Cassini. It operates 3 focal planes over the 7 to 1000 micron region. http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA): the near-IR imaging spectrograph on New Horizons, part of the Ralph camera. It has 250 narrow-band channels in the 1.2 to 2.5 micron range. "http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html

Cryogenic Echelle Spectrometer (CELESTE): used on ground-based facilities, most notably the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak.

Heterodyne Instrument for Planetary Wind And Composition (HIPWAC): used on ground-based facilities, often at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea.

Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter (AOTF) cameras: These cameras operate over an octave of frequency in the visible or near-IR by tuning a piezo-electric crystal to act as a narrowband filter. This enables the generation of hyperspectral image cubes, and several of these cameras have been used at many ground-based facilities, including Apache Point Observation and the Air Force AEOS Telescope on Maui.


USA Gov . gov NASA Logo - nasa.gov