The Infrared Telescope in Space (IRTS) is a cryogenically cooled 15 cm telescope on board the Space Flyer Unit (SFU), a small space platform. The SFU was launched in March 1995 by Japanese H-2 rocket and retrieved by NASA's Space Shuttle in January 1996 after successful execution of the mission. The IRTS has performed an infrared sky survey successfully in the wavelength range from 1.4 micrometer to 700 micrometer. About 7% of the entire sky has been surveyed. The cryogenic system of the IRTS held the telescope and the focal plane instruments at a stable temperature of 1.9 K for more than one month. The infrared sensors worked well, although remarkable radiation effects were observed especially at the South Atlantic Anomaly. We need further analysis to clean these radiation effects, but the obtained data will give important scientific information on the interstellar matter, extragalactic background light.

Date Published: 27 June 1996
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 2744, Infrared Technology and Applications XXII, (27 June 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.243522

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2744:
Infrared Technology and Applications XXII
Bjorn F. Andresen; Marija S. Scholl, Editor(s)