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The apparent youthfulness of Venus’ surface features, given a lack of plate tectonics, is very intriguing; however, longduration seismic observations are essentially impossible given the inhospitable surface of Venus. The Venus Airglow Measurements and Orbiter for Seismicity (VAMOS) mission concept uses the fact that the dense Venusian atmosphere conducts seismic vibrations from the surface to the airglow layer of the ionosphere, as observed on Earth. Similarly, atmospheric gravity waves have been observed by the European Venus Express’s Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument. Such observations would enable VAMOS to determine the crustal structure and ionospheric variability of Venus without approaching the surface or atmosphere. Equipped with an instrument of modest size and mass, the baseline VAMOS spacecraft is designed to fit within an ESPA Grande form factor and travel to Venus predominantly under its own power. Trade studies have been conducted to determine mission architecture robustness to launch and rideshare opportunities. The VAMOS mission concept was studied at JPL as part of the NASA Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) program, which has not only produced a viable and exciting mission concept for a Venus SmallSat, but has also examined many issues facing the development of SmallSats for planetary exploration, such as SmallSat solar electric propulsion, autonomy, telecommunications, and resource management that can be applied to various inner solar system mission architectures.

The Venusian atmosphere creates inhospitable temperature and pressure conditions for the surface of Venus, Earth's twin planet, making in-situ measurements of any appreciable length difficult, expensive, and risky to obtain. Yet, because of the apparent youthfulness of Venus' surface features, long-duration seismic observations are in high demand in order to determine and understand the dynamic processes taking place in lieu of plate tectonics. The Venus Airglow Measurements and Orbiter for Seismicity (VAMOS) mission concept would make use of the dense Venusian atmosphere as a medium to conduct seismic vibrations from the surface to the ionosphere. Here, the resulting atmospheric gravity waves and acoustic waves can be observed in the form of perturbations in airglow emissions, the basic principles for which have been demonstrated at Earth following a tsunami and at Venus with the European Venus Express's Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument. In addition, these observations would enable VAMOS to determine the crustal structure and ionospheric variability of Venus without approaching the surface or atmosphere themselves. Equipped with an instrument of modest size and mass, the baseline VAMOS spacecraft is designed to fit within a SmallSat form factor and travel to Venus predominantly under its own power. VAMOS would enter into an orbit uniquely suited for the long-duration, full-disk staring observations required for seismic readings. VAMOS' journey would be enabled by modern solar electric propulsion technology and SmallSat avionics, which allow the spacecraft to reach Venus and autonomously filter observation data on board to detect Venus-quake events. Currently, trade studies are being conducted to determine mission architecture robustness to launch and rideshare opportunities. Key spacecraft challenges for VAMOS, just as with many SmallSat-based mission concepts, include thermal and power management, onboard processing capabilities, telecommunications throughput, and propulsion technology. The VAMOS mission concept is being studied at JPL as part of the NASA Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) program, which will not only produce a viable and exciting mission concept for a Venus SmallSat, but will have the opportunity to examine many issues facing the development of SmallSats for planetary exploration. These include SmallSat solar electric propulsion, autonomy, telecommunications, and resource management that can be applied to various inner solar system mission architectures.

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is unbaffled and has stability requirements tighter than the previous generation of 10- m class telescopes, leading to tougher requirements on atmospheric dispersion correctors (ADCs). Since instruments are internally baffled, ADCs may no longer shift the position of the telescope exit pupil. Designs that control pupil position are explored.

The Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS) is a wide-field, multipurpose imaging spectrograph on the Magellan-Baade telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. IMACS has two channels—f/2 and f/4, each with an 8K × 8K pixel mosaic of CCD detectors, that service the widest range of capabilities of any major spectrograph. These include wide-field imaging at two scales, 0.20'' pixel-1 and 0.11'' pixel-1, single-object and multislit spectroscopy, integral-field spectroscopy with two 5'' × 7'' areas sampled at 0.20'' pixel-1 (Durham IFU), a multiobject echelle (MOE) capable of N ~ 10 simultaneous full-wavelength R ≈ 20,000 spectra, the Maryland-Magellan Tunable Filter (MMTF), and an image-slicing reformatter for dense-pack multislit work (GISMO). Spectral resolutions of 8 < R < 5000 are available through a combination of prisms, grisms, and gratings, and most modes are instantly available in any given IMACS configuration. IMACS has a spectroscopic efficiency over 50% in f/2 multislit mode (instrument only) and, by the AΩ figure of merit (telescope primary surface area times instrument field of view ), IMACS scores 5.7 m2 deg2, compared with 3.1 for VIMOS on VLT3 and with 2.0 for DEIMOS on Keck2. IMACS is the most versatile, and—for wide-field optical spectroscopy—the most powerful spectrograph on the planet.

Final assembly and integration of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory instrument at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California is now complete. The instrument was shipped to Orbital Sciences Corporation in March of this year for integration with the spacecraft. This observatory will measure carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen absorption to retrieve the total column carbon dioxide from a low Earth orbit. An overview of the design-driving science requirements is presented. This paper then reviews some of the key challenges encountered in the development of the sensor. Diffraction grating technology, lens assembly performance assessment, optical bench design for manufacture, optical alignment and other issues specific to scene-coupled high-resolution grating spectrometers for this difficult science retrieval are discussed.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will measure the distribution of total column carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere from an Earth-orbiting satellite. Three high-resolution grating spectrometers measure two CO2 bands centered at 1.61 and 2.06 μm and the oxygen A-band centered at 0.76 μm in the near infrared region of the spectrum. This paper presents the optical design and highlights the critical optical requirements flowed down from the scientific requirements. These requirements necessitate a focal ratio of f/1.9, a spectral resolution of 20,000, and precedence-setting requirements for polarization stability and the instrument line shape function. The solution encompasses three grating spectrometers that are patterned after a simple refractive spectrometer approach consisting of an entrance slit, a two-element collimator, a planar reflection grating, and a two-element camera lens. Each spectrometer shares a common field of view through a single all-reflective telescope. The light is then re-collimated and passed through a relay system, separating the three bands before re-imaging the scene onto each of the spectrometer entrance slits using an all-reflective inverse Newtonian re-imager.

The Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) is a multipurpose instrument which has been delivered by the Instrument Development Laboratory of Lick Observatory for use at the Cassegrain focus of the Keck II telescope. ESI saw first light on August 29, 1999. ESI is a multi-mode instrument that enables the observer to seamlessly switch between three modes during an observation. The three modes of ESI are: An R=13,000-echellette mode; Low-dispersion prismatic mode; Direct imaging mode. ESI contains a unique flexure compensation system which reduces the small instrument flexure to negligible proportions. Long-exposure images on the sky show FWHM spot diameters of 34 microns (0.34") averaged over the entire field of view. These are the best non-AO images taken in the visible at Keck Observatory to date. Maximum efficiencies are measured to be 28% for the echellette mode and greater than 41% for low-dispersion prismatic mode including atmospheric, telescope and detector losses. In this paper we describe the instrument and its development. We also discuss the performance-testing and some observational results., 10 pages, 14 figures, 8tables, accepted for publication in PASP, 15 April 2002

All Cassegrain spectrographs suffer from gravitationally- induced flexure to some degree. While such flexure can be minimized via careful attention to mechanical design and fabrication, further performance improvements can be achieved if the spectrograph has been designed to minimize hysteresis and has active compensation for any residual flexure. The Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI), built at UCO/Lick Observatory for use at Cassegrain focus on Keck II, compensates for such residual flexure via its collimator mirror. The collimator is driven by three actuators that provide control of collimator focus, tip, and tilt. The ESI control software utilizes a mathematical model of gravitationally-induced flexure to periodically compute and apply flexure corrections by commanding the corresponding tip and tilt motions to the collimator. In addition, the ESI control software provides an optional, manual, closed-loop method for adjusting the collimator position to compensate for any non-repeatable errors. Such errors may result from mechanical hysteresis or from thermally-induced structural deformations of the instrument and are thus not accounted for by the gravitational flexure model. This method relies on measuring the centroid position of fiducial spots within each echellete image. The collimator is adjusted so that the positions of these spots match those in a reference image. These spots are produced by a small round hole in the slit mask located near one end of the slit. We discuss the design and calibration of this flexure compensation system and report on its performance ont he telescope.

The Echelle Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) is a multipurpose instrument which has been delivered by the Instrument Development Laboratory of Lick Observatory for use at the Cassegrain focus of the Keck II telescope. ESI saw first light on August 29, 1999. The optical performance of the instrument has been measured using artificial calibration sources and starlight. Measurements of the average image FWHM in echelle mode are 22 microns (0.22 arcseconds), 16 to 18 microns (0.16 to 0.18 arcseconds) in broad band imaging mode, and comparable in the low-dispersion prismatic mode (LDP). Images on the sky, under best seeing conditions show FWHM sizes of 34 microns (0.34 arcseconds). Maximum efficiencies are measured to be 30% for echelle and anticipated to be greater than 38% for low dispersion prismatic mode including atmospheric, telescope and detector losses. In this paper we describe the instrument and its specifications. We discuss the testing that led to the above conclusions., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, replaced figures with gifs

The Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI), currently being delivered for use at the Cassegrain focus of the Keck II telescope employs an all-spherical, 308 mm focal length f/1.07 Epps camera. The camera consists of 10 lens elements in 5 groups: an oil-coupled doublet; a singlet, an oil- coupled triplet; a grease-coupled triplet; and a field flattener, which also serves as the vacuum-dewar window. A sensitivity analysis suggested that mechanical manufacturing tolerances of order +/- 25 microns were appropriate. In this paper we discuss the sensitivity analysis, the assembly and the testing of this camera.

The ESI (echellette spectrograph and imager) is a multi-mode Cassegrain spectrograph currently funded and under construction at UCO/Lick Observatory for the Keck II telescope. The ESI instrument has three modes. The 170.0-mm collimated beam can be sent directly into the camera for imaging, through a prism disperser, or to an echellette grating with prism cross-dispersion. An all-refracting Epps camera and a single 2 K by 4 K detector are used for all three modes. The direct-imaging mode has a 2.0 multiplied by 8.0- arcmin field of view with 0.15-arcsec pixels. Filters may be placed either near the focal surface of the telescope or in the parallel beam, and the option of a future upgrade including a Fabry-Perot at the pupil image is available. The low-dispersion prism-only mode has a dispersion of 50 to 300 km/sec/pix, depending on wavelength, and this mode can be used with a 8.0-arcmin long slit or in a multi-slit mode with user- made slit-masks. The high-dispersion echellette mode gives the entire spectrum from 0.39 to 1.09 microns with a 20.0-arcsec slit length in a single exposure, with a dispersion of 9.6 to 12.8 km/sec/pix.