The Herschel-Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI): instrument and pre-launch testing
- Creators
- de Graauw, Thijs
- Whyborn, Nick
- Helmich, Frank
- Dieleman, Pieter
- Roelfsema, Peter
- Caux, Emmanuel
- Phillips, Tom
- Stutzki, Jürgen
- Beintema, Douwe
- Benz, Arnold
- Biver, Nicolas
- Boogert, Adwin
- Boulanger, Francois
- Cherednichenko, Sergey
- Coeur-Joly, Odile
- Comito, Claudia
- Dartois, Emmanuel
- de Jonge, Albrecht
- de Lange, Gert
- Delorme, Ian
- DiGiorgio, Anna
- Dubbeldam, Luc
- Edwards, Kevin
- Fich, Michael
- Güsten, Rolf
- Herpin, Fabrice
- Honingh, Netty
- Huisman, Robert
- Jacobs, Herman
- Jellema, Willem
- Kawamura, Jon
- Kester, Do
- Klapwijk, Teun
- Klein, Thomas
- Kooi, Jacob
- Krieg, Jean-Michel
- Kramer, Carsten
- Kruizenga, Bob
- Laauwen, Wouter
- Larsson, Bengt
- Leinz, Christian
- Liseau, Rene
- Lord, Steve
- Luinge, Willem
- Marston, Anthony
- Merkel, Harald
- Moreno, Rafael
- Morris, Patrick
- Murphy, Anthony
- Naber, Albert
- Planesas, Pere
- Martin-Pintado, Jesus
- Olberg, Micheal
- Orleanski, Piotr
- Ossenkopf, Volker
- Pearson, John
- Perault, Michel
- Phillip, Sabine
- Rataj, Mirek
- Ravera, Laurent
- Saraceno, Paolo
- Schieder, Rudolf
- Schmuelling, Frank
- Szczerba, Ryszard
- Shipman, Russell
- Teyssier, David
- Vastel, Charlotte
- Visser, Huib
- Wildeman, Klaas
- Wafelbakker, Kees
- Ward, John
- Higgins, Roonan
- Aarts, Henri
- Tielens, Xander
- Zaal, Peer
Abstract
This paper describes the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI), to be launched onboard of ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, by 2008. It includes the first results from the instrument level tests. The instrument is designed to be electronically tuneable over a wide and continuous frequency range in the Far Infrared, with velocity resolutions better than 0.1 km/s with a high sensitivity. This will enable detailed investigations of a wide variety of astronomical sources, ranging from solar system objects, star formation regions to nuclei of galaxies. The instrument comprises 5 frequency bands covering 480-1150 GHz with SIS mixers and a sixth dual frequency band, for the 1410-1910 GHz range, with Hot Electron Bolometer Mixers (HEB). The Local Oscillator (LO) subsystem consists of a dedicated Ka-band synthesizer followed by 7 times 2 chains of frequency multipliers, 2 chains for each frequency band. A pair of Auto-Correlators and a pair of Acousto-Optic spectrometers process the two IF signals from the dual-polarization front-ends to provide instantaneous frequency coverage of 4 GHz, with a set of resolutions (140 kHz to 1 MHz), better than < 0.1 km/s. After a successful qualification program, the flight instrument was delivered and entered the testing phase at satellite level. We will also report on the pre-flight test and calibration results together with the expected in-flight performance.
Additional Information
© 2008: SPIE. The Herschel-HIFI instrument is being constructed, tested and prepared for operations by a large set of teams of dedicated engineers, scientists and managers, from 11 European and North American countries, with grants from their national space agencies and science foundations: the Netherlands, Germany, USA, France, Spain, Italy, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, Ireland. Also the home institutes have invested many resources into this project. These contributions and continuous support are well appreciated by the HIFI consortium. Also the fruitful collaborations with ESA and the Herschel and HIFI industrial partners are acknowledged. This extremely challenging project is a team effort based upon the creativity, dedication and perseverance of many individuals participating in this scientific and technological enterprise, aimed to open up a new wavelength range for the astronomical community. Thanks to their efforts the instrument could be tested and delivered as planned.Attached Files
Published - hershel_heterodyne.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 65313
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160311-143116534
- Created
-
2016-03-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Keck Institute for Space Studies
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 7010