The Herschel-Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI): instrument and pre-launch testing

Thijs de Graauw , Nick Whyborn , Frank Helmich , Pieter Dieleman , Peter Roelfsema , Emmanuel Caux (1) , Tom Phillips (2) , Jürgen Stutzki , Douwe Beintema , Arnold Benz , Nicolas Biver (3) , Adwin Boogert , Francois Boulanger (4) , Sergey Cherednichenko (5) , Odile Coeur-Joly (1) , Claudia Comito (6) , Emmanuel Dartois (4) , Albrecht de Jonge , Gert de Lange (7) , Ian Delorme , Anna Digiorgio (8) , Luc Dubbeldam , Kevin Edwards (9) , Michael Fich , Rolf Güsten (10) , Fabrice Herpin (11, 12, 13) , Netty Honingh , Robert Huisman (8) , Herman Jacobs (14) , Willem Jellema , Jon Kawamura , Do Kester , Teun Klapwijk , Thomas Klein , Jacob Kooi , Jean-Michel Krieg (15) , Carsten Kramer (16) , Bob Kruizenga , Wouter Laauwen , Bengt Larsson , Christian Leinz , Rene Liseau , Steve Lord , Willem Luinge , Anthony Marston , Harald Merkel , Rafael Moreno (3) , Patrick Morris (17) , Anthony Murphy (18) , Albert Naber , Pere Planesas , Jesus Martin-Pintado (19) , Micheal Olberg (20) , Piotr Orleanski , Volker Ossenkopf , John C. Pearson (21) , Michel Perault (22) , Sabine Phillip , Mirek Rataj , Laurent Ravera (1) , Paolo Saraceno , Rudolf Schieder , Frank Schmuelling , Ryszard Szczerba , Russell Shipman , David Teyssier , Charlotte Vastel (1) , Huib Visser , Klaas Wildeman , Kees Wafelbakker , John Ward (23) , Roonan Higgins (24) , Henri Aarts , Xander Tielens , Peer Zaal

1 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements
2 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
3 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
4 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
5 MC2 - Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience
6 CASSIOPEE - Laboratoire de Cosmologie, Astrophysique Stellaire & Solaire, de Planétologie et de Mécanique des Fluides
7 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
8 IBCP - Institut de biologie et chimie des protéines [Lyon]
9 Department of physical chemistry
10 MPIFR - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
11 LAB - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac]
12 OASU - Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers
13 L3AB - Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux
14 Institute of Medical Technology and Tampere University Hospital
15 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique
16 KOSMA, I. Physikalisches Institut
17 IMEP - Institut de Microélectronique, Electromagnétisme et Photonique
18 CSIRO Materials Sciences and Engineering
19 IEM - Instituto de Estructura de la Materia
20 Onsala Space Observatory
21 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Leicester]
22 LRA - Laboratoire de Radioastronomie
23 Photonics Centre
24 Dept Pathol & Microbiol

This paper describes the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI), to be launched onboard of ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, by 2008. It includes the first results from the instrument level tests. The instrument is designed to be electronically tuneable over a wide and continuous frequency range in the Far Infrared, with velocity resolutions better than 0.1 km/s with a high sensitivity. This will enable detailed investigations of a wide variety of astronomical sources, ranging from solar system objects, star formation regions to nuclei of galaxies. The instrument comprises 5 frequency bands covering 480-1150 GHz with SIS mixers and a sixth dual frequency band, for the 1410-1910 GHz range, with Hot Electron Bolometer Mixers (HEB). The Local Oscillator (LO) subsystem consists of a dedicated Ka-band synthesizer followed by 7 times 2 chains of frequency multipliers, 2 chains for each frequency band. A pair of Auto-Correlators and a pair of Acousto-Optic spectrometers process the two IF signals from the dual-polarization front-ends to provide instantaneous frequency coverage of 4 GHz, with a set of resolutions (140 kHz to 1 MHz), better than < 0.1 km/s. After a successful qualification program, the flight instrument was delivered and entered the testing phase at satellite level. We will also report on the pre-flight test and calibration results together with the expected in-flight performance.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Thijs de Graauw, Nick Whyborn, Frank Helmich, Pieter Dieleman, Peter Roelfsema, et al.. The Herschel-Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI): instrument and pre-launch testing. Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Optical, 2008, 7010, pp.2. ⟨10.1117/12.788659⟩. ⟨hal-00403365⟩