SPICA (spacecraft)
| Names | Next Generation Space Telescope | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission type | Astronomy | ||||
| Operator | JAXA / ESA | ||||
| Website |
www sci |
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| Mission duration | 3 years (design) | ||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||
| Launch mass | 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) | ||||
| Payload mass | 600 kg (1,300 lb) | ||||
| Dimensions | 5.3 m × 2.5 m (17.4 ft × 8.2 ft) | ||||
| Start of mission | |||||
| Launch date | 2027-2028 (proposed) | ||||
| Rocket | H3 Launch Vehicle | ||||
| Launch site | LA-Y, Tanegashima | ||||
| Contractor | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | ||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||
| Reference system | Sun–Earth L2 | ||||
| Regime | Halo orbit | ||||
| Epoch | planned | ||||
| Main telescope | |||||
| Type | Ritchey-Chrétien | ||||
| Diameter | 2.5 m (8.2 ft) | ||||
| Wavelengths | from 12 µm (mid-infrared) to 210 µm (far-infrared) |
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| Instruments | |||||
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The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), initially called HII/L2 after the launch vehicle and orbit, is a proposed infrared space telescope, follow-on to the successful Akari spacecraft.
The project is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the telescope will be launched on JAXA's next-generation flagship launch vehicle (H3). The Ritchey-Chrétien telescope's 2.5-metre mirror (similar size to that of the Herschel Space Observatory) is to be made of silicon carbide, possibly by the European Space Agency (ESA) given their experience with Herschel. Currently planned to be launched in 2025, the spacecraft's main mission will be the study of star and planetary formation. It will be able to detect stellar nurseries in galaxies, protoplanetary discs around young stars, and exoplanets, helped by its own coronograph for the latter two types of objects.
It is intended to use a halo orbit around the L2 point; it is intended to use mechanical cryocoolers rather than liquid helium, allowing the mirror to be cooled to 4.5 K (versus the 80 K or so of a mirror cooled only by radiation like Herschel's) which provides substantially greater sensitivity in the 10–100 μm infrared band (IR band); the telescope is intended to observe in longer wavelength infrared than the James Webb Space Telescope.
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