FIRST payload module and accomodation of instruments
Publication date: 02 May 2000
Authors: Collaudin, B. et al.
Journal: Proceedings of SPIE
Volume: 4013
Page: pp. 161-172
Year: 2000
Copyright: SPIE
FIRST is one of the satellites of the next ESA scientific mission FIRST/Planck, which will be launched in 2007 to the 2nd Lagrangian libration point L2. It will be a multi-user observatory, watching the universe in the infrared and sub-millimetre wavelength range from 60 to 670 µm. The payload Module (PLM) of FIRST will accommodate 3 instruments built by large scientific consortia: SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver), PACS (Photo-conductor Array Camera & Spectrometer), and HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for FIrst). All of them have detectors or mixers operating in the range 0.3 K-2 K. It must also support a 3.5 m diameter telescope. The design of the payload module is inspired from the one of ISO (Infrared Space Observatory). It is based on a large superfluid helium (HeII) Dewar (2560 litres at < 1.7 K), with cooling of the instruments either directly on the tank, or on the helium vent line (4 K and 15 K). The last cooling stage to 0.3 K is performed inside the instruments using a recyclable ³He-sorption cooler. The paper will describe the latest design status of the cryostat, and its interfaces to the instruments and the telescope.
SPIE symposium 'UV, Optical, and IR Space Telescopes and Instruments', held 29-31 March 2000 in Munich.
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