Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager

Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager
Mission type Astrophysics
Operator Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Mission duration Telescope: few months[1]
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft HHK1
Spacecraft type Lunar lander
Payload mass Total: ~30 kg[1]
LUCI: 1.85 kg[2]
Dimensions Telescope: 45 cm × 15 cm [2]
Start of mission
Launch date Proposed: 2019[3][4]
Rocket TBD
Moon lander
Main UV telescope
Name LUCI
Type Spherical catadioptric[2]
Diameter 30 cm [1]
Focal length 945 mm [1]
Collecting area 607 cm2 [1]
Wavelengths near UV (200 - 320 nm)[2]
Resolution ~5" [1]

Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager (LUCI) is a small planned telescope that would be landed on the Moon to scan the sky in near UV wavelengths. It is a technology demonstrator developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics,[5][1][6][7] and it would be one of several small payloads to be deployed by the commercial HHK-1 lunar lander by TeamIndus, that is hoped to launch sometime in 2019.

Science objectives

The science objectives of LUCI telescope are primarily to search for transient astronomic events such as supernovae, novae, tidal disruption events by massive black holes, and more exotic energetic sources such as superluminous supernovae and flashes from cosmic collisions which can be very energetic on all scales.[8][9]

LUCI would also look for faint asteroids and comets in the Solar System, especially for near-Earth objects (NEO) and potentially hazardous objects.[8] The aims are focused on UV sources not accessible by the more sensitive large space missions.[8]

Overview

The Earth's atmosphere absorbs and scatters UV photons, preventing observations of the active Universe. Placing a telescope on the surface of the Moon is advantageous because of its absence of atmosphere and ionosphere offers an unobstructed view of the space in all wavelengths. The Moon surface provides not just a stable platform, but an inexpensive and long-term access to observations in wavelengths not normally used by large orbital telescope missions. The only UV astronomical observations from the Moon to date were made by Apollo 16 team in 1972.[9] LUCI project started in 2013 and is funded by the India department of science and technology.[7] The telescope team is headed by Jayant Murthy.[8]

Design

LUCI is a small technology demonstrator without 3-axis pointing freedom, so it will rely on the motion of the lunar sky.[9] The optical system is a two-spherical mirror configuration and a double-pass corrector lens. Its primary lens is all-spherical measuring 30 cm[2] transmitting light through the system to a photon-counting Charge-coupled device (CCD) detector which is sensitive to ultraviolet wavelengths.[10][2] The detector is an 8 mm UV-sensitive CCD with the response between 200 - 900 nm, so the engineers placed a solar blind filter before the CCD to restrict the bandpass to 200 - 320 nm.[2]

LUCI is planned to be mostly contained within the lander, and it will be lowered back into its storage bay during the cold lunar nights.[9] The baseline for LUCI's operation is "a few months".[9]

  • Mass: 1.85 kg (4.1 lb) [2]
  • Operational wavelength: near UV (200 nm to 320 nm)[2]
  • Aperture: 80 mm
  • Focal length: 800 mm
  • Field of view: 27:60' × 20:40'

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Prospect for UV observations from the Moon". Safonova, M., Mathew, J., Mohan, R. et al. Astrophys. Space Sci. (2014) 353: 329. doi:10.1007/s10509-014-2056-y
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prospect for UV observations from the Moon. II. Instrumental Design of an Ultraviolet Imager LUCI. Joice Mathew, Ajin Prakash, Mayuresh Sarpotdar, A.G. Sreejith, Nirmal K., S. Ambily, Margarita Safonova, Jayant Murthy, Noah Brosch. ArXive, 6 January 2017.
  3. ↑ TeamIndus plans lunar probe launch in 2019, expanding India's private space ecosystem. Immanuel Jotham, International Business Times. 8 April 2018.
  4. ↑ "Google cancels $30m competition to travel to the moon". BBC. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
  5. ↑ "Bangalore-based startup aims for the skies | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dna. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  6. ↑ "Prospect for UV observations from the Moon. II. Instrumental design of an ultraviolet imager LUCI". Mathew, J., Prakash, A., Sarpotdar, M. et al. Astrophys. Space Sci. (2017) 362: 37. doi:10.1007/s10509-017-3010-6
  7. 1 2 "IIA, Team Indus take an X-Prize shot with LUCI - Bangalore Mirror -". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Bangalore-based startup aims for the skies | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dna. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Prospect for UV observations from the Moon. Margarita Safonova, Joice Mathew, Rekhesh Mohan, A. G. Sreejith, Jayant Murthy, Noah Brosch, Norbert Kappelmann, Arpit Sharma and Rahul Narayan. ArXive 2014.
  10. ↑ A generic FPGA-based detector readout and real-time image processing board. Mayuresh Sarpotdar, Joice Mathew, Margarita Safonova and Jayant Murthy. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India. ArXive. (2016)
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