Mission Concepts

Earlier in 2013, as a response to the call for White Papers for the definition of the L2 and L3 missions in the ESA Science Programme, and following the steps of the 2006 proposal a new sub-arcsecond far-infrared space observatory was presented. This White Paper was the result of an European collaboration lead by Ivison, Helmich and Sauvage. 

Focusing in the science cases presented before which all require a 0.1-1 arcsecond angular resolution at 100 ftm, three straw-man concepts were proposed and are shown in Fig. 1.7 TALC (left), FIRIT (centre) and ESPRIT (right). 

The TALC (Thinned Aperture Light Collector) concept consists of a 20 m diameter deployable aperture. It explores some unconventional optical solutions between the single dish and the interferometer in order to achieve a very large aperture by 

---

Burrows et al. (1999) The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) Mission concept and first scientific results,. 7. Atmos. Sci.,56, pp. 151-175. 

Burrows, J.P, M. Weber, M. Buchwitz, V. V. Rozanov, A. Ladstittter-Weifienmayer, A. Richter, R. De Beek, R. Hoogen, K. Bramstedt and K.U. Eichmann (1999) The Global ozone monitoring experiment (GOME) Mission concept and first scientific results. Journal of Atmospheric Science 56 No 2 151-175. 

Burrows J. P., Weber M., Buchwitz M., Rozanov V., Ladstatter-Weibenmayer A., Richter A., DeBeek R., Hoogen R., Bramstedt K., Eichmann K.-U., and Eisinger M. (1999) The global ozone monitoring experiment (GOME) mission concept and first scientific results. J. Atmos. Sci. 56, 151-175. 

The project of a tunable crystal diffraction telescope is supported by the French space agency CNES since 1994 and has been selected by NASA for a mission concept study in 1995. This work is partially supported by the U.S DoE Contract No. W-31-109-Eng-38. The authors are grateful to Francis Cotin for his contributions to this project. 

B. Byrnak et al. 1987, XSPECT-an X-ray spectroscopy and timing mission concept , submitted to Interkosmos by DSRI Lyngby. 

The collaboration of institutions studying the GLAST mission concept includes Stanford University, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Naval Research Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Chicago, University of Maryland, University of Washington, Lockheed Research laboratory, Sonoma State University, Max Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, University of Tokyo, and Kanagawa University. 

After the recent successes of the far-IR missions IRAS, ISO and the Herschel Space Observatory, the era of space interferometry beckons. Indeed interferometry is indicated as the way forward in many fields and at all wavelengths with far-infrared having the possibility of leading the way, thanks to the reduced metrology requirements. Interferometry in space is on the other hand extremely challenging and many attempts to jump-start studies and mission concepts have proven in many cases ahead of their time or in dire need of technology development to raise the feasibility of the proposed concepts. 

Spacecraft simultaneously in the Jovian system. Additionally, the decadal survey recommended that NASA should select its fourth mission in the New Frontiers program from among the following mission concepts Comet Surface Sample Return, Lunar South Pole Aiken Basin Sample Return, Saturn probe, Trojan Tour and Rendezvous, and Venus In Situ Explorer. 

Fig. 5.5 The visible to near-IR (left) and mid IR (right) spectral features on an Earth-like planet change considerably over its evolution from a C02 rich (epoch 0) to a C02/CH4-rich atmosphere (epoch 3) to a present-day atmosphere (epoch 5). The bold lines show spectral resolution of 80 and 25 comparable to the proposed visible TPF and Darwin/TPF-I mission concept, respectively [43]...

Abstract. This paper describes the status of NASA s Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) program. SIRTF will be a cryogenicaily cooled observatory for infrared astronomy from space and is planned for launch early in t next decade. It will be the first cryogenic space observatory to make extensive use of the powerfrd infrared detector array tednology discussed at this conference. We summarise a newly developed SIRTF mission concept and show how the availability of detector arrays has shaped the scientific rationale for SIRTF, and how the arrays themsdves have become part of the definition of the SIRTF misaon. 

Bury (1974 1975 1978 1999) introduces the concept of duty cycles to static design in a different approach. The duty cycle or mission length of a design is equivalent to the number of load applications, however, it is only the maximum value which is of design significance. If the load, L, is a random variable then so is its maximum value, L, and the PDFs of each are related. It can be shown that the CDF, F L), of the maximum among independent observations on L is ... 

Our mission is to explore the molecular universe with an understanding of all of the local molecular environments and constrain possible chemical reactions using the concepts of physical chemistry. With such a wide brief we need a focus and I have chosen the origins of life on Earth and on all planets - astrobiology. 

This article shows, through example, how established system safety concepts can be used to develop safety criteria for the design of a chemical surety materiel laboratory. This systematic approach, when applied as described in this article, results in a laboratory dedicated to achieve mission objectives in an environment relatively free of inherent hazards for the least number of dollars. 

The investigative mission is conducted in the context of an alliance whose spirit and goals are entirely collaborative. This does away with the tension induced by the pseudo-neutrality and passivity of the Freudian psychoanalyst. Also eliminated are such concepts as resistance and regression, because neither is either necessary or helpful. 

---