Aspera payload design overview: UV SmallSat mission to detect and map warm-hot halo gas around the nearby galaxies
Aspera is a NASA-funded UV SmallSat mission designed to detect and map warm-hot phase halo gas around nearby galaxies. The Aspera payload is designed to detect faint diffuse O VI emission at around 103.2 nm, satisfying the sensitivity requirement of 5×10<sup>−19</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup>/arcsec<sup>2</sup> over 179 hours of exposure. In this manuscript, we describe the overall payload design of Aspera. The payload comprises two identical co-aligned UV long-slit spectrograph optical channels sharing a common UV-sensitive microchannel plate detector. The design delivers spectral resolution R ∼ 2,000 over the wavelength range of 101 to 106 nm. The field of view of each channel is 1 degree by 30 arcsec, with an effective area of 1.1 cm<sup>2</sup>. The mission is now entering the payload integration and testing phase, with the projected launch-ready date set for late 2025 or early 2026. The mission will be launched into low-Earth orbit via rideshare.
Authors
- R.‐J. Dettmar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-5956)
- Daniel Truong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0731-258X)
- Jacob R. Chambers
- Sooseong Park
- Dennis Zaritsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5177-727X)
- Aafaque R. Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1244-0295)
- Peter Behroozi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2517-6446)
- Haeun Chung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3043-2555)
- John Kidd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4010-3050)
- Lauren Corlies (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0646-1540)
- Rebecca Su
- Trenton Brendel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6375-8674)
- Jamison Noenickx
- Sanford Selznick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3182-6783)
- Ewan S. Douglas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0813-4308)
- Carlos J. Vargas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7936-0831)
- Harrison Bradley
- Oswald H. W. Siegmund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9390-0056)
- Hannah Tanquary
- D. Hamara
- Adrian P. Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1202-8612)
- J. Christopher Howk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2591-3792)
- Daewook Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1122-8727)
- C. W. Hergenrother (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9120-7212)
- Keri Hoadley
- John Hennessy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0135-0219)
- T. J. McMahon
- Ellie Wolcott
- Fernando Coronado (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9406-3867)
- Erika Hamden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3131-7372)
- Ramona Augustin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7472-3824)
- Simran Agarwal
- Jason Corliss
- M. Keppler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7250-074X)
- Nicole Melso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4895-6592)
- Mateo Batkis
- Nazende I. Kerkeser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0229-2221)
- Sumedha Uppnor
- Giulia Ghidoli
- Naomi Yescas
- Bill Verts
- Luis V. Rodriguez-de-Marcos
- Jessica Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7232-5483)
- Manuel A. Quijada
- Elijah Garcia
- David Schiminovich
- Ryan Pecha
- Gabe Noriega
- Heejoo Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4963-1781)
- Joe Burchett
- Cork Sauve
- A. W. Goodwin
- Jasmine M. Castillo
- Greyson Davis
- Walter M. Harris
Institutions
- New Mexico State University (US)
- University of Iowa (US)
- Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (US)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Lunar and Planetary Institute (US)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2024-08-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017274
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Photocathodes and Microchannel Plates
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.18