Publication archive

Publication archive

Planck is the third Medium-Sized Mission (M3) of ESA's Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme. It is designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity (DeltaT/T ~ 2 x 10-6) and angular resolution (better than 10 arcminutes). Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early universe and the origin of cosmic structure. The ability to measure to high accuracy the angular power spectrum of the CMB fluctuations will allow the determination of fundamental cosmological parameters such as the density parameter (Omega0) and the Hubble constant H0, with an uncertainty of order a few percent. In addition to the main cosmological goals of the mission, the Planck sky survey will be used to study in detail the very sources of emission which "contaminate" the signal due to the CMB, and will result in a wealth of information on the properties of extragalactic sources, and on the dust and gas in our own galaxy. One specific notable result will be the measurement of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in many thousands of galaxy clusters. We will present an overview of the Planck mission, its scientific objectives, the key elements of its technical design, and its current status.
Published: 01 January 2001
The operations concept for the Cluster-II mission has had to evolve with respect to the original Cluster baseline, due mainly to changes in the spacecraft design and the reduction in the number of ground stations from two to only one for routine mission-operations support. The solutions adopted have allowed the overall impact on the ground segment and mission operations to be minimised, whilst still maintaining the scientific data return at the original level.
Published: 02 April 2000
The Cluster-II mission is designed to study the near-Earth space environment in three dimensions. This will be the first scientific mission with four identical spacecraft flying together in the Earth's environment. The relative distance between the four spacecraft will vary between 200 and 18 000 km, according to the scientific region of interest. Cluster-II and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) together make up the Solar Terrestrial Science Programme, the first 'Cornerstone' of ESA's Horizons 2000 long-term science plan.
Published: 02 April 2000
Schmidt, R. and M. L. Goldstein (Eds.)
Published: 01 January 1993
Contents:
7. Ulysses in the Context of the ESA Scientific Programme
R.M. Bonnet
10. Ulysses - A Brief History
K.-P. Wenzel & D. Eaton
13. Ulysses - An ESA/NASA Cooperative Programme
W. Meeks & D. Eaton
21. The Scientific Mission of Ulysses
K.-P. Wenzel et al.
29. The Ulysses Scientific Payload
P.J. Caseley & R.G. Marsden
40. The Ulysses Spacecraft
A. Hawkyard & P. Buia
51. RTGs - The Powering of Ulysses
E.F. Mastal & R.W. Campbell
57. The Ulysses Launch Campaign
J.P. Leertouwer & D. Eaton
61. Post-Launch Operations and Data Production
P. Beech & D. Meyer
66. Orbit Design and Control for Ulysses
M. Rosengren
70. Industrial Cooperation on Ulysses
G. Hampel
73. The Ulysses Storage and Recertification Activities
D. Eaton
78. The International Heliospheric Study
D.E. Page
Published: 02 July 1990
Nearly four years after its launch by the Space Shuttle 'Discovery', the European-built spacecraft reached the most southerly point on its out-of-ecliptic orbit, 80.2 degrees south of the Sun's equator, at a distance of 2.3 AU (345 million km) from the Sun. Although it will take scientists many months to unravel fully the new and exciting data acquired by Ulysses, several important results have already emerged.
Published: 02 April 1995
In this article, we summarise the key findings of the mission to date, and discuss the exciting results to be expected from the second phase of Ulysses' out-of-ecliptic journey.
Published: 01 November 1997
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.

Published: 02 May 2000
Article appears in 'Laboratory Astrophysics and Space Research' (Ehrenfreund P. et al. Eds.), volume 236 in the Book series 'Astrophysics and Space Science Library'.
Published: 01 December 1998
Proceedings of the Cluster II workshop Imperial College London UK
Published: 25 September 1999
In this paper we describe the design of PACS which has been developed by consortium of European research institutions with the goal to build and operate the instrument and the associated Instrument Control Centre. This design is the outcome of an iterative optimization process toward best observing efficiency regarding the key science of Herschel and toward simplicity of operation, and in the context of complementary missions like SOFIA or SIRTF. SPIE symposium 'UV, Optical, and IR Space Telescopes and Instruments', held 29-31 March 2000 in Munich. More info on http://astro.estec.esa.nl/FIRST/overview.html
Published: 02 June 2000
Four years ago, the first Cluster mission was lost when the maiden flight of Ariane-5 came to a tragic end. Today, through the combined efforts of the ESA Project Team, its industrial partners and collaborating scientific institutions, the Cluster quartet has been born again. A two-year programme of investigation into the Sun-Earth connection will begin this summer when ESA's Cornerstone mission to the magnetosphere lifts off from Baikonur. Flying in formation over the Earth's polar regions, Cluster-II will carry out the first three-dimensional exploration of near-Earth space ever attempted.
Published: 02 April 2000
UV, Optical, and IR Space Telescopes and Instruments FIRST, the 'Far InfraRed and Submillimeter Telescope', is the fourth cornerstone mission in the European Space Agency science program. It will perform photometry and spectroscopy in the far infrared and submillimeter part of the spectrum, covering approximately the 60 - 670 micrometers range.
Published: 02 June 2000
The FIRST/Planck ESA program combines two ESA missions of the HORIZON 2000 program, the cornerstone mission of the Far InfraRed and Submillimeter Telescope and the third medium sized mission, Planck. An overview is given in this paper of the current system design, the performance parameters and an outlook on the spacecraft development.
Published: 02 June 2000
The Heterodyne Instrument for FIRST (HIFI) will cover at least the frequency range 492 GHz to 1113 GHz and will provide sensitive observations with resolving powers ranging from less than 5x105 to 1.2x107. The instrument is optimised for the measurement of weak, broad spectral lines of distant galaxies and for performing fast line surveys of galactic objects. This paper describes the performance, observing modes, and calibration modes of the planned instrument. Companion papers in these Proceedings describe the instrument optics, mixers and spectrometer systems.

In the Proceedings of 'The Far InfraRed and Submillimetre Universe', an ESA symposium, held 15-17 April 1997 in Grenoble, France.

Published: 02 July 1997
SPIRE, the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, will be a bolometer instrument for ESA's Herschel satellite. Its main scientific goals are deep extra-galactic and galactic imaging surveys and spectroscopy of star-forming regions in own and nearby galaxies. In the proceedings of the 'The promise of FIRST', symposium held 12-15 December 2000 in Toledo, Spain.
Published: 02 June 2001
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