MIRIS: A Compact Wide-field Infrared Space Telescope

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Vol. 126; no. 943; pp. 853 - 862
• Main Authors: Han, Wonyong, Lee, Dae-Hee, Jeong, Woong-Seob, Park, Youngsik, Moon, Bongkon, Park, Sung-Joon, Pyo, Jeonghyun, Kim, Il-Joong, Park, Won-Kee, Lee, Dukhang, Seon, Kwang-Il, Nam, Uk-Won, Cha, Sang-Mok, Park, Kwijong, Park, Jang-Hyun, Yuk, In-Soo, Hee Ree, Chang, Jin, Ho, Choel Yang, Sun, Park, Hong-Young, Shin, Goo-Hwan, Seo, Joung-Ki, Rhee, Seung-Wu, Park, Jong-Oh, Mok Lee, Hyung, Murakami, Hiroshi, Matsumoto, Toshio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Chicago Press 01.09.2014
• Subjects: Cooling; Instrumentation; Optical filters; Optical lenses; Optics; Pixels; Sensors; Spacecraft; Spacecraft launching; Telescopes; Wavelengths; INW, Korea, Rep
• ISSN: 0004-6280; 1538-3873
• DOI: 10.1086/678130

A compact infrared space telescope called MIRIS (Multi-purpose Infra-Red Imaging System) was developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), and launched onboard the Science and Technology Satellite-3 of Korea (STSAT-3) in 2013 November. The main mission of MIRIS is the Paschen-α emission line survey along the Galactic plane and the cosmic infrared background (CIB) observation, particularly around the north ecliptic pole region. For these missions, a wide field of view (3.67 × 3.67°) with an angular resolution of 51.6″ and wavelength coverage from 0.9 ∼ 2.0 μm have been adopted for MIRIS, having optical components consisting of a 80 mm main lens and four other lenses with F/2 focal ratio optics. The opto-mechanical system was carefully designed to minimize any effects from shock during the launch process and thermal variation. Also, the telescope was designed to use a passive cooling technique to maintain the temperature around 200 K in order to reduce thermal noise. A micro Stirling cooler was used to cool down the Teledyne PICNIC infrared array to 90 K, which was equipped in a dewar with four filters for infrared passbands of I, H, and Paschen-α and a dual-band continuum line filter. MIRIS system was integrated into the STSAT-3 as its primary payload and successfully passed required tests in the laboratory, such as thermal-vacuum, vibration, and shock tests. MIRIS is now operating in sun synchronous orbits for initial tests and has observed its first images successfully.