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The Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for polarization: BLAST-pol

Marsden, G. and Bock, J. J. (2008) The Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for polarization: BLAST-pol. In: Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IV. Proceedings of SPIE. No.7020. Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) , Bellingham, WA, Art. No. 702002. ISBN 9780819472304. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20181112-085646846

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Abstract

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) is a sub-orbital experiment designed to study the process of star formation in local galaxies (including the Milky Way) and in galaxies at cosmological distances. Using a 2m Cassegrain telescope, BLAST images the sky onto a focal plane, which consists of 270 bolometric detectors split between three arrays, observing simultaneously in 30% wide bands, centered at 250, 350, and 500 μm. The diffraction-limited optical system provides a resolution of 30" at 250 μm. The pointing system enables raster-like scans with a positional accuracy of ~30", reconstructed to better than 5" rms in postflight analysis. BLAST had two successful flights, from the Arctic in 2005, and from Antarctica in 2006, which provided the first high-resolution and large-area (~0.8−200 deg^2) submillimeter surveys at these wavelengths. As a pathfinder for the SPIRE instrument on Herschel, BLAST shares with the ESA satellite similar focal plane technology and scientific motivation. A third flight in 2009 will see the instrument modified to be polarization-sensitive (BLAST-pol). With its unprecedented mapping speed and resolution, BLAST-pol will provide insights into Galactic star-forming nurseries, and give the necessary link between the larger, coarse resolution surveys and the narrow, resolved observations of star-forming structures from space and ground based instruments being commissioned in the next 5 years.


Item Type:Book Section
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.788413DOIArticle
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Bock, J. J.0000-0002-5710-5212
Additional Information:© 2008 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The BLAST collaboration acknowledges the support of NASA through grant numbers NAG5-12785, NAG5-13301 and NNGO-6GI11G, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Innovation Trust, the Puerto Rico Space Grant Consortium, the Fondo Istitucional para la Investigacion of the University of Puerto Rico, and the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs; C. B. Netterfield also acknowledges support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. L. Olmi would like to acknowledge Pietro Bolli for his help with Physical Optics simulations during the testing phase of BLAST06. We would also like to thank the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) staff for their outstanding work, the Precision Machining Group at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, the support received from Empire Dynamic Structures in the design and construction of the gondola, Daniele Mortari for helpful discussions in the development of the Pyramid code, Dan Swetz for buliding the Fourier transform spectrometer, and Luke Bruneaux, Kyle Lepage, Danica Marsden, Vjera Miovic, and James Watt for their contribution to the project.
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NASANAG5-12785
NASANAG5-13301
NASANNGO-6GI11G
Canadian Space Agency (CSA)UNSPECIFIED
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)UNSPECIFIED
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)UNSPECIFIED
Canada Foundation for InnovationUNSPECIFIED
Ontario Innovation TrustUNSPECIFIED
Puerto Rico Space Grant ConsortiumUNSPECIFIED
University of Puerto RicoUNSPECIFIED
NSFUNSPECIFIED
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)UNSPECIFIED
Subject Keywords:submillimeter — stars: formation — instrumentation: miscellaneous — balloons — polarization
Series Name:Proceedings of SPIE
Issue or Number:7020
DOI:10.1117/12.788413
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20181112-085646846
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20181112-085646846
Official Citation:G. Marsden, P. A. R. Ade, S. Benton, J. J. Bock, E. L. Chapin, J. Chung, M. J. Devlin, S. Dicker, L. Fissel, M. Griffin, J. O. Gundersen, M. Halpern, P. C. Hargrave, D. H. Hughes, J. Klein, A. Korotkov, C. J. MacTavish, P. G. Martin, T. G. Martin, T. G. Matthews, P. Mauskopf, L. Moncelsi, C. B. Netterfield, G. Novak, E. Pascale, L. Olmi, G. Patanchon, M. Rex, G. Savini, D. Scott, C. Semisch, N. Thomas, M. D. P. Truch, C. Tucker, G. S. Tucker, M. P. Viero, D. Ward-Thompson, D. V. Wiebe, "The Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for polarization: BLAST-pol," Proc. SPIE 7020, Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 702002 (18 July 2008)
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:90832
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Tony Diaz
Deposited On:13 Nov 2018 19:16
Last Modified:16 Nov 2021 03:35

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