The CEI is currently involved in many international space missions and projects.
Gaia: Gaia was adopted within the scientific programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) in October 2000. The mission aims to: measure the positions of ~1 billion stars both in our Galaxy and other members of the Local Group, with an accuracy down to 20 µas, perform spectral and photometric measurements of all objects, derive space velocities of the Galaxy's constituent stars using the stellar distances and motions, and create a three-dimensional structural map of the Galaxy. The gathered large datasets will provide astronomers with a wealth of information covering a wide range of research fields: from solar system studies, galactic astronomy, cosmology to general relativity. The CEI is involved in a number of different projects including modelling the CCDs designed for the Gaia mission to simulate the charge trapping effect of radiation damage, analysis of the BP/RP and RVS radiation campaign datasets and the development of the data processing pipeline.
IXO: The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a new X-ray telescope with joint participation from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This project supersedes both NASA's Constellation-X and ESA's XEUS mission concepts. IXO is a next-generation facility designed to examine three main areas: black holes and matter under extreme conditions, formation and evolution of galaxies, clusters and large scale structure, and the life cycles of matter and energy. The IXO optics will have 20 times more collecting area at 1 keV than any previous X-ray telescope. The focal plane instruments will deliver up to 100-fold increase in effective area for high resolution spectroscopy from 0.3-10 keV, deep spectral imaging from 0.2-40 keV over a wide field of view, unprecedented polarimetric sensitivity, and microsecond spectroscopic timing with high count rate capability. The CEI is currently developing instrumentation for the X-ray Grating Spectrometer (XGS) readout.
Euclid: Euclid is a medium class mission candidate for launch in 2017 as part of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme and will spend five years in orbit at L2. The mission is a combination of two missions: the Dark UNiverse Explorer (DUNE) and the SPectroscopic All Sky Cosmic Explorer (SPACE). The primary goal is to study the dark universe by means of two main cosmological probes: the Weak Lensing (WL) technique which maps the distribution of dark matter and measures the properties of dark energy in the universe and the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) technique which uses the scales in the spatial and angular power spectra as "standard rulers" to measure the equation of state and rate of change of dark energy.
The CEI is working with a number of institutes, including ESA and Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) on the characterisation of the radiation effects to the Euclid CCDs. This work involves pre- and post-irradiation characterisation of the e2v CCD204s provided by ESA, based on the same architecture as the CCD203 which is proposed to be used onboard Euclid. A model of the CCD204 pixel structure is being created to explore the electron density for charge storage as a function of signal size and being used in CTE simulations under a variety of signal conditions to predict CTE effects at the mid and end of mission. The aim is to provide recommendations on CCD design modifications for improved radiation tolerance, device operation and shielding.
Chandrayaan-1 & 2: The Indian Space Research Organisation Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was launched on the 22nd of October 2008. It spent nine months in a 100 km circular orbit around the Moon before communication was lost. During this time it surveyed the around 15 percent of the lunar surface providing a map of chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The spacecraft carried a number of instruments including a terrain mapping camera, infrared spectrometers, and the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS). The C1XS instrument consisted of 24 e2v technologies CCD54 swept-charge device silicon X-ray detectors arranged in 6 modules that will carried out high quality X-ray spectroscopic mapping of the Moon using the technique of X-ray fluorescence in the energy range 0.5-10 keV.
The CEI was involved in performing the proton radiation damage assessment for the CCD54 devices recommending instrument shielding, operating temperature and operating potentials. The pre-flight characterisation of the 14 modules available for flight selection was also conducted recommending ten modules suitable for use in the instrument. The ESA space environment information system (SPENVIS) software was utilised to estimate the worse case end of life 10 MeV equivalent proton fluence, which was used to irradiate a number of CCD54 devices to investigate their post irradiation performance. The CEI continues to be involved in the instrument in an advisory role on the observed radiation effects to the CCD54 devices.
Chandrayaan-2 is the second Indian lunar mission, to be launched in 2014 into a 200 km polar orbit where is will use and test various new technologies. The spacecraft will include a number of instruments, one being the Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) instrument which is a continuation of the successful C1XS instrument. CLASS will map the abundance of major rock forming elements on the lunar surface, mapping elemental abundances with a nominal spatial resolution of 25 km. The instrument uses the second generation swept charge device, CCD236, and has a geometrical area three times that of C1XS which will allow for data collection at low levels of solar activity.
The CEI will provide assistance with the characterisation of the SCDs and an analysis of the impact of radiation damage on their performance. Initial studies have demonstrated a factor of two improvement in radiation hardness, further optimisation and a more detailed investigation into device performance is currently underway.
UKube-1: The UK Space Agency is planning to launch their first cubesat later this year. The cubesat platform allows fast mission turnaround of small payloads, allowing more groups to be involved with the missions. After launch in late 2011, the satellite will spend 1 year in a low Earth orbit (~400km), with a view to operating for a further 2 years if successful.
The CEI has successfully bid for design and production of a single payload, working in tandem with Clydespace to develop a payload responsible for imaging of the Earth with narrow and wide field imagers. In addition the group plans to include an imager to monitor radiation damage effects on the 0.18µm CMOS sensors, which have been previously characterised on the ground. This is the first such instrument under total development by the group, and will provide ample training and expansion of knowledge of mission development within the group. Click Here to access the mission page for more information.