[meteorite-list] SOFIA Prepares for Debut Flight Featuring Cornell-made Instrument

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 15:29:46 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201005242229.o4OMTkcu005781_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May10/SofiaBackground.html

NASA's airborne observatory prepares for debut flight featuring
Cornell-made instrument

May 24, 2010

By Lauren Gold
LG34 at cornell.edu

When the first photons meet the 2.7-meter telescope aboard SOFIA, the
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, in flight May 25,
it will be the long-awaited result of more than 13 years of work by
hundreds of scientists and engineers around the world.

It will also be the beginning of a new era in astronomy, scientists
say. And it will be a particularly sweet moment for Cornell professor
of astronomy Terry Herter, leader of the team that designed and built
FORCAST (the Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope),
the first instrument to fly on the observatory.

SOFIA, a modified Boeing 747SP fitted with a German-built telescope
that measures radiation primarily in the infrared, is about to begin
what researchers hope will be some 20 years of observing the
universe. The mission is a joint program by NASA and the German
Aerospace Center.

With an evolving variety of instruments that can be changed and
updated as technology progresses over the years, the observatory
could help answer questions about planet and star formation, the
composition of nearby galaxies and the center of our own galaxy,
features of the interstellar medium and the planets of our solar
system.

The observatory combines the advantages of space-based telescopes
like the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubbell Space Telescope with
the benefits of ground-based observatories, said University of
California-Los Angeles astrophysicist Eric Becklin. Flying at
35,000-45,000 feet, it will allow researchers to see phenomena that
are obscured from the ground by atmospheric water vapor. But because
it returns to the ground, researchers can change instruments and make
adjustments and modifications that would be impossible with a space
telescope.

"The aircraft puts the two together; it's a nice partnership," said
Becklin. "I haven't talked to anybody who's not excited by this
project."

SOFIA is also mobile -- it can travel to different places around the
world to observe transient events.

To keep it stable in flight, the telescope is suspended over a giant
spherical bearing -- similar to how a puck is suspended over an air
hockey table. Small torquer motors use magnetic fields to keep the
telescope centered.

Five instruments are ready for use on SOFIA (one at a time), with
many more in the pipeline. First in line is FORCAST, an infrared
camera that can take 100 images per second, making it ideally suited
for characterizing the telescope on its initial flights. On the debut
six-hour flight, FORCAST will also measure the thermal emission from
the telescope itself -- vital information for every instrument to
follow -- and take infrared photos of test targets in the sky.

Herter, principal investigator for FORCAST, will be on board to
operate the instrument, along with two other Cornell team members and
seven scientists, engineers and technicians from the United States
and Germany. Once SOFIA is in regular operation, FORCAST will collect
high-resolution infrared images of the galactic center, regions
around forming stars and nearby galaxies.

With dozens of flights logged on SOFIA's predecessor, the Kuiper
Airborne Observatory, Herter is a veteran of airborne astronomy. But
he's not jaded to the concept. "Think of it: You modify a 747
airplane and cut a hole in it, and then you put a telescope in it and
look out," he said. "It's pretty amazing."

SOFIA's development program is managed at NASA's Dryden Flight
Research Center, Edwards, Calif., with the aircraft based at the
Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale. NASA's Ames Research
Center manages SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation
with the Universities Space Research Association and the Deutsches
SOFIA Institute in Stuttgart, Germany.

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Received on Mon 24 May 2010 06:29:46 PM PDT