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The paper aims at recalling Maria Montessori’s essential assumptions about the child development and organization of the educational process as a basic issue considering the concept of science education. In the Montessori pedagogy, it is characterized by the form of the so-called Cosmic Education. Cosmic Education is a unique approach to work with children aged 6 to 12. Thus, the idea of Cosmic Education, the relationship between the child’s needs and the science education curriculum is elucidated. The essence of the Great and Key Lessons as centers of children’s exploration and research is discussed. The Montessorian way of learning about fundamental human needs is presented as an inspiration for school practice. The basis for collecting empirical material is the analysis of the content aiming at the current achievements within the selected topic characterization., Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przypomnienie głównych założeń, jakie sformułowała Maria Montessori na temat rozwoju dziecka i organizacji procesu edukacyjnego, jako punktów krytycznych w rozważaniach nad koncepcją kształcenia w zakresie poznawania środowiska społeczno-przyrodniczego. W pedagogice Montessori wskazana koncepcja przybiera postać tzw. Kosmicznej Edukacji. Kosmiczna Edukacja jest unikatowym podejściem w pracy z dziećmi w wieku od 6 do 12 lat. W artykule wyjaśniono ideę Edukacji Kosmicznej, wskazano związek między potrzebami dziecka a programem poznawania środowiska społeczno-przyrodniczego. Opisano istotę Wielkich i Kluczowych Lekcji, jako ośrodków dziecięcych badań i dociekań. Zaprezentowano także rekomendowany przez Montessori sposób poznawania przez dzieci fundamentalnych potrzeba człowieka, będący inspiracją dla praktyki szkolnej. Podstawą do zebrania materiału empirycznego była analiza treści, przeprowadzona w celu scharakteryzowania aktualnych osiągnięć w ramach wybranego tematu.

The LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission has been selected by the European Space Agency’s Science Programme Committee as the third large-class mission of the Cosmic Vision Programme, addressing the science theme of the Gravitational Universe. With a planned launch date in 2034, LISA will be the first ever space-borne Gravitational Wave observatory, relying on laser interferometry between three spacecraft orbiting the Sun in a triangular formation. Airbus is currently leading an industrial Phase A system study on behalf of the European Space Agency. The paper will address the astrodynamics challenges associated with the LISA constellation design, driven by tight requirements on the geometric quality metrics of the near equilateral formation.

Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission (Tinetti 2019; Puig et al. 2018; Pascale et al. 2018), has been selected in March 2018 by ESA for the fourth medium-class mission (M4) launch opportunity of the Cosmic Vision Program, with an expected lift off in late 2028. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of the atmospheres of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of our own Solar System. Its Payload (P/L) (Eccleston and Tinetti 2018; Eccleston et al. 2017; Middleton et al. 2019), has been designed to perform transit spectroscopy from space during primary and secondary planetary eclipses in order to achieve a large unbiased survey concerning the nature of exoplanets atmospheres and their interiors, to determine the key factors affecting the formation and evolution of planetary systems (Tinetti et al. 2017, 2018). Ariel will observe hundreds of warm and hot transiting gas giants, Neptunes and super-Earths around a wide range of host star types, targeting planets hotter than $\sim $ 600 K to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres. It will exploit primary and secondary transit spectroscopy in the 1.10 to 7.80 μm spectral range and broad-band photometry in the optical (0.50 - 0.80 μm) and Near IR (0.80 - 1.10 μm) . One of the two instruments of the Ariel Payload is the Fine Guidance System (FGS), including three photometric channels (two used for guiding as well as science) between 0.5-1.1 μm plus a low resolution NIR spectrometer for 1.1-1.95 μm range. Along with FGS an IR Spectrometer (AIRS) (Amiaux et al. 2017) is foreseen, providing low-resolution spectroscopy in two IR channels: Channel 0 (CH0) for the 1.95 − 3.90 μm band and Channel 1 (CH1) for the 3.90 − 7.80 μm range. Finally, an Active Cooler System (ACS) including a Ne Joule-Thomson cooler is adopted to provide active cooling capability to the AIRS detectors working at cryogenic temperatures. AIRS is located at the intermediate focal plane of the telescope and common optical system and it hosts two HgCdTe-based hybrid IR detectors and two cold front-end electronics (CFEE) for detectors control and readout. Each CFEE is driven by a Detector Control Unit (DCU) part of AIRS but hosted within and managed by the Instrument Control Unit (ICU) of the Payload (Focardi et al. 2018). ICU is a warm unit residing into the S/C Service Module (SVM) and it is based on a cold redundant configuration involving the Power Supply Unit (PSU) and the Commanding and Data Processing Unit (CDPU) boards; both DCUs are instead cross-strapped and can be managed by the nominal or the redundant (PSU+CDPU) chain. ICU is in charge of AIRS management, collecting scientific and housekeeping (HK) telemetries from the spectrometer and HK from the telescope (temperatures readings), the P/L Optical Bench (OB) and other Subsystems (SS), thanks to a warm slave unit (TCU, Telescope Control Unit) interfaced to the ICU. Science and HK telemetries are then forwarded to the S/C, for temporary storage, before sending them to Ground. Here we describe the status of the ICU design at the end of B1 Phase, prior to the Mission Adoption Review (MAR) by ESA, with some still open architectural choices to be addressed and finalised once selected the ICU industrial Prime contractor.

This paper provides an analysis of Martin Buber’s not very well-known essay “Distance and Relation”, which is his most relevant contribution to philosophical anthropology. In the essay, which was published almost thirty years after the publication of his most famous book, I and Thou, Buber elaborated on the anthropological foundations of his cosmic vision of dialogical life. The central question is “How is man possible?” Buber’s answer is very important to the further development of his principle of dialogue in psychology (primarily his notion of confirmation) and philosophy of art, but it is not quite clear how compatible it is with some of his earlier theses from I and Thou. In particular, the relation between “distance” and the I-It relation is unclear. There are two seemingly contradictory statements: “In the beginning is the relation” and “The primal distance is a presupposition of the relation”. The aim of this paper is to examine these anthropological foundations and to elucidate this apparent contradiction.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is developing the Athena (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics) X-ray telescope, an L-class mission in their current Cosmic Vision cycle for long-term planning of space science missions. Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) are a new type of X-ray optics enabling future X-ray observatories such as Athena and are being developed at cosine with ESA as well as academic and industrial partners. These high-performance, modular, lightweight yet stiff, high-resolution X-ray optics shall allow missions to reach unprecedented combination of large effective area, good angular resolution and low mass. As the development of the Athena mission progresses, it is necessary to validate the SPO technology under launch conditions. To this end, ruggedisation and environmental testing studies are being conducted to ensure mechanical stability and optical performance of the optics before, during and after launch. In this paper, we report on the results of our completed environmental testing campaigns on mirror modules of middle radius (about 700 mm) of curvature. In these campaigns, each mirror module is first integrated then submitted to sine and random vibration tests, as well as shock tests, all in accordance with the upcoming Ariane launch vehicle and the mission requirements. Additionally, the mirror modules are characterized with X-ray before and after each test to verify the optical performance remains unchanged.

Euclid is a part of the European Space Agency Cosmic Vision Medium Class program. This mission’s goal is to investigate the nature of dark energy, dark matter and gravity by observing the geometry of the Universe and the formation of structures over cosmological timescales. Euclid Payload Module (PLM) includes a large TMA Korsch telescope in Silicon Carbide (SiC), feeding a visible imager (VIS) and a near-infrared spectrometer and photometer (NISP). Both instruments are mounted at their respective focal plane position.

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey was selected as M4 mission in the ESA Cosmic Vision programme. This mission will study the chemical composition of exoplanetary atmospheres via high resolution, multi-wavelength spectroscopy with high photometric precision. These tasks demand highly stable pointing during operation, which is provided by a dedicated Fine Guiding Sensor (FGS). The FGS uses two MCT detectors operating in 0.6-1.95μm range. The instrument provides target identification and centroid measurements to the spacecraft forming a closed loop in the guiding. In addition, the FGS detectors are also used for science including photometric and spectral windows. Our instrument contains it own Data Processing Unit (DPU). This is a dual core LEON-based computer running the Instrument Application Software (IASW). The software implements a large number of ECSS services to fulfill the various operating needs. The mission-specific modes cover target acquisition and tracking tasks, processing of the photometric and spectral windows as well as various calibration modes. Aside from that, the thermal control is also handled by the FGS software. The science data need to be compressed in a lossless manner. In this respect we build upon our experiences gathered in our contributions to the ESA missions Herschel and Cheops. While the science data processing has only soft real-timing needs, the centroiding is critical to run and provide results as fast as possible. We present the architectural design of the software particularly highlighting the low-level software adaptations needed to support the high demands from the centroid timing. The presented overview will cover the current development status of the IASW with a detailed look at the design and expected performance of the algorithms. Furthermore, we will present our development and testing workflow, which is built upon our own EGSE software.

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars) is the ESA Medium size dedicated to exo-planets discovery and cataloguing, adopted in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. The PLATO launch is planned in 2026 and the mission will last at least 4 years in the Lagrangian point L2. The primary scientific goal of PLATO is to discover and characterize a large amount of exo-planets hosted by bright nearby stars. The PLATO strategy is to split the collecting area into 24(+2) identical 120 mm aperture diameter fully refractive cameras with partially overlapped Field of View delivering an overall instantaneous sky covered area of about >2100 square degrees. The opto-mechanical sub-system of each camera, namely Telescope Optical Unit (TOU), is basically composed by a 6 lenses fully refractive optical system, presenting one aspheric surface on the front lens, and by a mechanical structure made in AlBeMet. In this paper we will update on the current working status of the TOUs.

The ESA/JAXA SPICA mission is a candidate for the ESA Cosmic Vision Medium Class M5 opportunity. Since 2019 an Airbus Defence and Space team has been performing a trade-off study (on behalf of ESA) to establish a baseline telescope optical configuration and design, which can meet the mission scientific performance requirements. This paper describes the telescope baseline design selected, with first estimates of the expected optical performance. The optical design wavelength is 20 microns for an operating temperature of 8 K covering a total bandwidth of 12 to 420 microns over a 30 arc minutes field of view, with a total required collecting area of at least 4.0 m². The fundamental mission science driver is to achieve a sky background (astrophysical sources) limited performance. The telescope is designed to illuminate three instruments namely; SMI (JAXA - Japan), SAFARI (SRON - Netherlands) and B-BOP (CEA - France).

The Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, ARIEL, has been selected to be the next (M4) medium class space mission in the ESA Cosmic Vision programme. From launch in 2028, and during the following 4 years of operation, ARIEL will perform precise spectroscopy of the atmospheres of ~1000 known transiting exoplanets using its metre-class telescope. A three-band photometer and three spectrometers cover the 0.5 µm to 7.8 µm region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This paper gives an overview of the mission payload, including the telescope assembly, the FGS (Fine Guidance System) - which provides both pointing information to the spacecraft and scientific photometry and low-resolution spectrometer data, the ARIEL InfraRed Spectrometer (AIRS), and other payload infrastructure such as the warm electronics, structures and cryogenic cooling systems.

Ariel, the “atmospheric remote sensing infrared exoplanet large survey” mission, is the European Space Agency’s Cosmic Vision M4 (medium-class number 4) science mission. It has recently gone through an implementation approval (“adoption”), with a planned launch in 2029. Ariel, together with two other M4 candidate missions (THOR and XIPE), was recommended in June 2015 to enter an assessment study, consisting of a Phase 0 at the ESA internal Concurrent Design Facility study followed by a Phase A with parallel industrial studies. The Phase A was concluded in March 2018 with the selection of Ariel as the M4 mission endorsed by the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC). Phase B1 was subsequently initiated, and was concluded by the Mission Adoption Review in mid-2020, followed by the formal adoption of Ariel in November 2020 by the SPC. Ariel is a survey-type mission dedicated to the characterisation of exoplanets by performing a chemical census. Using the differential technique of transit/eclipse spectroscopic observations, Ariel will obtain transmission and/or emission spectra of the atmospheres of a large (~1000) and diverse sample of known exoplanets covering a wide range of masses, densities, equilibrium temperatures, orbital properties and host-star characteristics. This will include hot Jupiters to warm Super-Earths, orbiting A to M spectral class host stars. This paper reports on the Ariel Phase 0/A/B1 study, including the conclusions of the reviews that were conducted in 2020 to close the study and support the adoption process.

The Infra-Red Telescope (IRT) is part of the payload of the THESEUS mission, which is one of the two ESA M5 candidates within the Cosmic Vision program, planned for launch in 2032. The THESEUS payload, composed by two high energy wide field monitors (SXI and XGIS) and a near infra-red telescope (IRT), is optimized to detect, localize and characterize Gamma-Ray Bursts and other high-energy transients. The main goal of the IRT is to identify and precisely localize the NIR counterparts of the high-energy sources and to measure their distance. Here we present the design of the IRT and its expected performance., Proceedings of the SPIE 2020, paper 11444-305

ARIEL, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission1-3 was selected in early 2018 by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the fourth medium-class mission (M4) launch opportunity of the Cosmic Vision Program, with an expected launch in late 2028. It is the first mission dedicated to the analysis of the chemical composition and thermal structures of up to a thousand transiting exoplanets atmospheres, which will expand planetary science far beyond the limits of our current knowledge.

SPICA provided the next step in mid- and far-infrared astronomical research and was a candidate of ESA's fifth medium class Cosmic Vision mission. SAFARI is one of the spectroscopic instruments on board SPICA. The Focal Plane Unit (FPU) design and analysis represent a challenge both from the mechanical and thermal point of view, as the instrument is working at cryogenic temperatures between 4.8K and 0.05K. Being a large instrument, with a current best estimate of 148,7kg of mass, its design will have to be optimized to fit within the mission´s mass and volume budget. The FPU will also have to be designed for its modularity and accessibility due to the large number of subsystems that SAFARI had to accommodate, highlighting Fourier Transform Spectrometer Mechanism (FTSM) and the three grating-based point source spectrometer modules (GM) which operates at 1.7K in the FPU, the latter representing 60% of the total mass of the instrument Peerreview

This paper presents the Subsurface Radar Sounder (SRS) instrument onboard European Space Agency's (ESA) EnVision mission. EnVision is one of the three candidates selected for the Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 M5 medium-class missions. It is aimed at exploring the activity, the geologic history and the atmosphere of Venus. SRS is an orbital ground-penetrating radar with the unique science objectives of understanding the evolution of Venus' surface by searching for subsurface dielectric interfaces in the top hundreds of metres of the crust. In the paper, we describe the main science objectives of SRS, the performance evaluation under expected target conditions, the instrument design and the acquisition strategy that maximize the scientific returns.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is a mission chosen in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 20152025 program of the Science and Robotic Exploration Directorate of the European Space Agency. The Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument (SWI) is a spectrometer/radiometer instrument operating in two Sub-millimeter channels between 530 – 625 GHz and 1080 – 1275 GHz to study the dynamics of Jupiter’s stratosphere, vertical profiles of wind speed, temperature, composition and structure of exospheres of Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. LERMA is responsible for the delivery of critical sub-systems of the two channel frontends, including its 1200GHz mixer and last frequency stage local oscillator. In this paper will describe the SWI radiometer front-end system and address the different procurement steps of the flight hardware. We will present some of the test structures used, the tests conditions as well as some of the failure criterias and allowable drifts.

Aims. Solar Orbiter, the first mission of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme and a mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, will explore the Sun and heliosphere from close up and out of the ecliptic plane. It was launched on 10 February 2020 04:03 UTC from Cape Canaveral and aims to address key questions of solar and heliospheric physics pertaining to how the Sun creates and controls the Heliosphere, and why solar activity changes with time. To answer these, the mission carries six remote-sensing instruments to observe the Sun and the solar corona, and four in-situ instruments to measure the solar wind, energetic particles, and electromagnetic fields. In this paper, we describe the science objectives of the mission, and how these will be addressed by the joint observations of the instruments onboard. Methods. The paper first summarises the mission-level science objectives, followed by an overview of the spacecraft and payload. We report the observables and performance figures of each instrument, as well as the trajectory design. This is followed by a summary of the science operations concept. The paper concludes with a more detailed description of the science objectives. Results. Solar Orbiter will combine in-situ measurements in the heliosphere with high-resolution remote-sensing observations of the Sun to address fundamental questions of solar and heliospheric physics. The performance of the Solar Orbiter payload meets the requirements derived from the mission's science objectives. Its science return will be augmented further by coordinated observations with other space missions and ground-based observatories. © 2020 ESO., Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus and is being operated by ESA from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Science operations are carried out at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca del Castillo, Spain. Conceiving, designing and building Solar Orbiter has been an international team e ffort of many people. In particular, the authors would like to thank ESA's Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and Science Operations Centre (SOC) teams, Yves Langevin and Jose-Manuel Sanchez Perez for their skillful optimisation of mission trajectories, the ESA and NASA Project o ffices, Airbus, IABG, NASA-LSP, ULA, and all national funding agencies that have enabled Solar Orbiter. The German contribution to SO/PHI is funded by the Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Technologie through Deutsches Zentrum fur Luftund Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Grants No. 50 OT 1001/1201/1901 as well as 50 OT 0801/1003/1203/1703, and by the President of the Max Planck Society (MPG). The Spanish contribution has been partially funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades through projects ESP2014-56169-C6 and ESP2016-77548-C5. IAA-CSIC acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Research Agency (AEI/MCIU) through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). The French contribution is funded by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. Further detailed acknowledgements regarding each instrument can be found in the individual instrument papers of this special issue. R.A.H. is supported by the NASA Solar Orbiter Collaboration Office, under contract NNG09EK11I. The Spanish contribution to SO/PHI has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through several projects, the last one of which being RTI2018-096886-B-C5, and by "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa" Programme under grant SEV-2017-0709. The authors would like to highlight Rainer Schwenn's (1941-2017) important and enthusiastic contribution to the Solar Orbiter mission in its early phase. Portions of the text have been reproduced with permission from Muller & Marsden (2013) copyright by Springer. The authors would like to thank John Leibacher and Bernhard Fleck for their support, and the referee for providing helpful suggestions.

The evolution of galaxies at Cosmic Noon (redshift 1, Comment: Contributed talk at the IAU Symp 359 Galaxy Evolution and Feedback Across Different Environments, 2020 March 2-6, Bento Concalves, Brazil. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1911.12181

In order to investigate the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars and planetary systems, it is necessary to carry out astronomical observations in the far-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Missions such as the Herschel Space Observatory (European Space Agency) have already completed observations in this region with great success. Proposed high resolution spectrometer instruments such as SAFARI (a joined European/Japanese (ESA/JAXA) proposal as part of the SPICA mission), aim to build upon the work of previous missions by carrying out observations in the 1.5–10 THz band with unprecedented levels of sensitivity. Spica (SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics) is currently a candidate mission as part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025. Future far-IR missions must realise higher levels of sensitivity, limited only by the cosmic microwave background. One solution in achieving these sensitivity goals is to use waveguide coupled Transition Edge Sensor (TES) detectors, arranged in a densely packed focal plane. Additionally, multi-mode pixels can be used in order to maximise the optical throughput and coupling while still defining a definite beam shape. For the SAFARI instrument multimoded horns coupling into integrating waveguide cavities that house the TES detectors and associated absorbing layer are envisioned. This represents a significant technological challenge in terms of accurate manufacture tolerances relative to the short wavelength, however in the case of the SAFARI instrument pixel much work has already been carried out, with prototype pixels having undergone extensive testing at SRON (Space Research Organisation of the Netherlands) Groningen. In order to fully characterise the experimental results, it is necessary also to carry out comprehensive electromagnetic modelling of these structures which is also computationally intensive and requires novel approaches. These waveguide structures (horn and cavity) are typically electrically large however, and so analysis techniques using commercial finite element software prove inefficient (particularly as the structures are multimoded). The mode-matching technique with new analytical features offer a computationally efficient and reliable alternative to full electromagnetic solvers, and in this paper we outline the additions to this technique that were necessary in order to allow typical SAFARI far-infrared pixels to be modeled, including the complete optical coupling calculation of the measurement test setup at SRON and the inclusion of the free space gap within the horn antenna and the integrating cavity. Optical coupling efficiencies simulated using this developed technique show excellent agreement with the experimental measurements.

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; Virtual, Online; United States; 14 December 2020 through 18 December 2020; Code 166330.--Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering Volume 11444, 2020, Article number 114442K.--Full list of authors: Labanti, C.; Amati, L.; Frontera, F.; Mereghetti, S.; Gasent-Blesa, J. L.; Tenzer, C.; Orleanski, P.; Kuvvetli, I.; Campana, R.; Fuschino, F.; Terenzi, L.; Virgilli, E.; Morgante, G.; Orlandini, M.; Butler, R. C.; Stephen, J. B.; Auricchio, N.; De Rosa, A.; Da Ronco, V.; Evangelisti, F. Melchiorri, M.; Squerzanti, S.; Fiorini, M.; Bertuccio, G.; Mele, F.; Gandola, M.; Malcovati, P.; Grassi, M.; Bellutti, P.; Borghi, G.; Ficorella, F.; Picciotto, A.; Zanini, V.; Zorzi, N.; Demenev, E.; Rashevskaya, I.; Rachevski, A.; Zampa, G.; Vacchi, A.; Zampa, N.; Baldazzi, G.; La Rosa, G.; Sottile, G.; Volpe, A.; Winkler, M.; Reglero, V.; Connell, P. H.; Pinazo-Herrero, B.; Navarro-González, J.; Rodríguez-Martínez, P.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Santangelo, A.; Hedderman, P.; Lorenzi, P.; Sarra, P.; Pedersen, S. M.; Tcherniak, D.; Guidorzi, C.; Rosati, P.; Trois, A.; Piazzolla, R., THESEUS (Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor) is one of the three missions selected by ESA as fifth medium class mission (M5) candidates in its Cosmic Vision science program, currently under assessment in a phase A study with a planned launch date in 2032. THESEUS is designed to carry on-board two wide and deep sky monitoring instruments for X/gamma-ray transients detection: a wide-field soft X-ray monitor with imaging capability (Soft X-ray Imager, SXI, 0.3 - 5 keV), a hard X-ray, partially-imaging spectroscopic instrument (X and Gamma Imaging Spectrometer, XGIS, 2 keV - 10 MeV), and an optical/near-IR telescope with both imaging and spectroscopic capability (InfraRed Telescope, IRT, 0.7 - 1.8 µm). The spacecraft will be capable of performing fast repointing of the IRT to the error region provided by the monitors, thus allowing it to detect and localize the transient sources down to a few arcsec accuracy, for immediate identification and redshift determination. The prime goal of the XGIS will be to detect transient sources, with monitoring timescales down to milliseconds, both independently of, or following up, SXI detections, and identify the sources performing localisation at, The Phase A study of the THESEUS/XGIS instrument is supported by ASI-INAF Agreement n. 2018-29-HH.0, OHB Italia/ - INAF-OASBo Agreement n.2331/2020/01, by the European Space Agency ESA through the M5/NPMC Programme and by the AHEAD2020 project funded by UE through H2020-INFRAIA-2018-2020. By the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, PID2019-109269RB-C41. By Polish National Science Center, Project 2019/35/B/ST9/03944 and Foundation for Polish Science, Project POIR.04.04.00-00-5C65/17-00.

The X and Gamma Imaging Spectrometer instrument on-board the THESEUS mission (selected by ESA in the framework of the Cosmic Vision M5 launch opportunity, currently in phase A) is based on a detection plane composed of several thousands of single active elements. Each element comprises a 4.5x4.5x30 mm 3 CsI(Tl) scintillator bar, optically coupled at both ends to Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs). The SDDs acts both as photodetectors for the scintillation light and as direct X-ray sensors. In this paper the design of the XGIS detection plane is reviewed, outlining the strategic choices in terms of modularity and redundancy of the system. Results on detector-electronics prototypes are also described. Moreover, the design and development of the low-noise front-end electronics is presented, emphasizing the innovative architectural design based on custom-designed Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)., Comment: Proceedings of the SPIE 2020, paper 11444-277

The response of the X and Gamma Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS) instrument onboard the Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) mission, selected by ESA for an assessment phase in the framework of the Cosmic Vision M5 launch opportunity, has been extensively modeled with a Monte Carlo Geant-4 based software. In this paper, the expected sources of background in the Low Earth Orbit foreseen for THESEUS are described (e.g. diffuse photon backgrounds, cosmic-ray populations, Earth albedo emission) and the simulated on-board background environment and its effects on the instrumental performance is shown., Proceedings of the SPIE 2020, paper 11444-275. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2101.03017

In the last few years, the observation of gravitational waves by means of LIGO and Virgo interferometers and the success of LISA Pathfinder, gave a significant boost to the development of space-based gravitational wave observatories. The European Space Agency confirmed LISA as the third large class mission of the Cosmic Vision program. The present work is part of the Drag Free and Attitude Control System (DFACS) preliminary prototyping study, which aims at the development of mathematical models and advanced controllers for the science phases of the LISA mission. Nonlinear modelling is a fundamental step for the derivation of linearized and decoupled models as well as for the development of suitable linear and nonlinear controllers. In this paper, an analytical nonlinear model is derived, which describes all the relevant dynamics of a LISA spacecraft, representing an effective compromise between accuracy and complexity. The model is extensively validated through linearization analysis and Monte Carlo simulations.

The ATHENA—Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics—mission is currently assessed in a phase A feasibility study as L-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 plan, with launch foreseen in 2028. Primary mission goal is the mapping of hot gas structures and the determination of their physical properties to search for supermassive black holes. ATHENA is an X-ray telescope with a focal length of 12 m. It has a mass of ~ 7000 kg and it is ~ 15 m high with a diameter of ~ 3 m. The main mass is distributed to the mirror on the one side of the spacecraft and to the science instrument module on the other side of the spacecraft. To achieve its science goals, ATHENA performs a sky survey with precision line-of-sight pointing requirements in the order of arc seconds for absolute pointing and sub-arc seconds for relative pointing in time windows > 1 ks, all at 95% confidence level. That is very demanding for large X-ray telescopes. In addition to the precision pointing requirements, ATHENA cannot violate a certain sun exclusion zone. This is a hard constraint to prevent any stray-light falling onto the instruments, as it would immediately destroy them. The sky survey is defined by an observation plan that is demanding in terms of availability and thus spacecraft agility. The pointing and agility requirements and the fact that ATHENA is a spacecraft with high mass and volume introduce several design challenges for the attitude and orbit control system. This paper presents those challenges, corresponding solutions, and preliminary results, which have been achieved during the phase A study led by Airbus in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The main focus and contribution of this paper are the identification of research and development needs for attitude and orbit control systems to enable the ATHENA mission. In this respect, the ATHENA design challenges are discussed and addressed with the state-of-the-art design methods. This paper concludes with the main identified technology development needs and formulates specific research questions related to practical design problems. In particular, the following attitude and orbit control system design challenges are addressed: autonomous and agile large angle slew manoeuvres with exclusion zones, availability for science observations, precision line-of-sight determination as well as analysis during the design process using the ESA Pointing Error Engineering Tool and pointing control with a hexapod as line-of-sight actuator in the control loop. The last challenge, namely, the hexapod in the control loop, is without precedence in Europe and to the best knowledge of the authors in the world.

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission (ARIEL) is one of the three present candidates for the ESA M4 (the fourth medium mission) launch opportunity. The proposed Payload will perform a large unbiased spectroscopic survey from space concerning the nature of exoplanets atmospheres and their interiors to determine the key factors affecting the formation and evolution of planetary systems. ARIEL will observe a large number (>500) of warm and hot transiting gas giants, Neptunes and super-Earths around a wide range of host star types, targeting planets hotter than 600 K to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres. It will exploit primary and secondary transits spectroscopy in the 1.2-8 um spectral range and broad-band photometry in the optical and Near IR (NIR). The main instrument of the ARIEL Payload is the IR Spectrometer (AIRS) providing low-resolution spectroscopy in two IR channels: Channel 0 (CH0) for the 1.95-3.90 um band and Channel 1 (CH1) for the 3.90-7.80 um range. It is located at the intermediate focal plane of the telescope and common optical system and it hosts two IR sensors and two cold front-end electronics (CFEE) for detectors readout, a well defined process calibrated for the selected target brightness and driven by the Payload's Instrument Control Unit (ICU)., Experimental Astronomy, Special Issue on ARIEL, (2017)

The second L-class (large) mission in European Space Agency’s Cosmic Vision program will be an X-ray telescope named Athena, planned to operate at the L2 Lagrange point of the Sun–Earth system. Current large X-ray space telescopes like XMM-Newton and Chandra have encountered periods of unexpectedly high background due to protons in the energy range from 10 keV to 1 MeV (called “soft protons” hereafter). This is an important issue for Athena, as no X-ray telescope has been deployed at L2 so far and the soft proton environment there is poorly known. We analyze data from the Artemis and Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft and find that fluxes of both solar and geomagnetospheric origin significantly contribute to the soft proton populations in earth’s magnetotail. We then estimate the background from the measured fluxes in Athena’s X-ray instruments and compare it with the science requirement. Our findings reinforce the argument for developing a means to suppress the soft proton flux before it reaches the detectors such as with a magnetic diverter.