Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies: science overview

The Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies (SALTUS) probe mission will provide a powerful far-infrared (far-IR) pointed space observatory to explore our cosmic origins and the possibility of life elsewhere. The observatory employs an innovative deployable 14-m aperture, with a sunshield that will radiatively cool the off-axis primary to <45 K. This cooled primary reflector works in tandem with cryogenic coherent and incoherent instruments that span 34- to 660-μm far-IR range at both high and moderate spectral resolutions. The mission architecture, using proven Northrop Grumman designs, provides visibility to the entire sky every 6 months with ∼35% of the sky observable at any one time. SALTUS’s spectral range is unavailable to any existing ground or current space observatory. SALTUS will have 16× the collecting area and 4× the angular resolution of Herschel and is designed for a lifetime of ≥5 years. The SALTUS science team has proposed a Guaranteed Time Observations program to demonstrate the observatory’s capabilities and, at the same time, address high-priority questions from the Decadal survey that align with NASA’s Astrophysics Roadmap. With a large aperture enabling high spatial resolution and sensitive instruments, SALTUS will offer >80% of its available observing time to Guest Observer programs, providing the science community with powerful capabilities to study the local and distant universe with observations of 1000s of diverse targets such as distant and nearby galaxies, star-forming regions, protoplanetary disks, and solar system objects.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems
Published
2024-12-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.10.4.042310
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.01

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Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies: science overview

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Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies: science overview

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article en
2 citations

Abstract

The Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies (SALTUS) probe mission will provide a powerful far-infrared (far-IR) pointed space observatory to explore our cosmic origins and the possibility of life elsewhere. The observatory employs an innovative deployable 14-m aperture, with a sunshield that will radiatively cool the off-axis primary to <45 K. This cooled primary reflector works in tandem with cryogenic coherent and incoherent instruments that span 34- to 660-μm far-IR range at both high and moderate spectral resolutions. The mission architecture, using proven Northrop Grumman designs, provides visibility to the entire sky every 6 months with ∼35% of the sky observable at any one time. SALTUS’s spectral range is unavailable to any existing ground or current space observatory. SALTUS will have 16× the collecting area and 4× the angular resolution of Herschel and is designed for a lifetime of ≥5 years. The SALTUS science team has proposed a Guaranteed Time Observations program to demonstrate the observatory’s capabilities and, at the same time, address high-priority questions from the Decadal survey that align with NASA’s Astrophysics Roadmap. With a large aperture enabling high spatial resolution and sensitive instruments, SALTUS will offer >80% of its available observing time to Guest Observer programs, providing the science community with powerful capabilities to study the local and distant universe with observations of 1000s of diverse targets such as distant and nearby galaxies, star-forming regions, protoplanetary disks, and solar system objects.

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and SystemsVol. 10(04)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Universities Space Research Association (US), University of Arizona (US), Observatoire de Paris (FR), Kitt Peak National Observatory (US), Northrop Grumman (United States) (US), University of Oxford (GB), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), IIT@MIT (US), Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (DE), Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (FR), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory, Space Research Organisation Netherlands (NL), University of Virginia (US), Optica (US), University of Maryland, College Park (US), Texas A&M University (US), University of California, Berkeley (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Queen Mary University of London, University of Oxford
Openalex Percentile: Top 18%
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
1.01
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