Adaptive field-of-view ultraviolet integral-field spectroscopy with the Ultraviolet Micromirror Imaging Spectrograph (UMIS)

The study of solar system bodies in the ultraviolet is often the study of extended sources, including vapor plumes, atmospheres, cometary tails, and planetary surfaces. These objects are traditionally studied with longslit spectrographs that can sample one dimension of spatial information at a time - providing a cross section of the object in question. The Ultraviolet Micromirror Imaging Spectrograph (UMIS) is a new instrument concept that will bring integral-field spectroscopy to the field for the first time, effectively creating a two-dimensional image of the source at every wavelength in the spectral bandpass simultaneously. UMIS is designed around the concept of an image slicer, where a set of angled mirrors at the telescope focal plane dissect the image into sub-regions which are aligned to avoid overlap of spectra on the detector. Unlike conventional image slicers, however, UMIS employs a reconfigurable micromirror array at the focal plane instead of a fixed mirror slicer array. The UMIS micromirror array, provided by Bright Silicon Technologies, consists of 20 × 20 individual mirrors, each actuatable to any angle up to 15 degrees. This new concept overcomes the limitations of a conventional image slicer by enabling the sampling of various sized regions matched to different targets and spectral resolution requirements within a large field-of-view. This proceedings presents the UMIS optical design, concept and development schedule. UMIS is a collaboration of the Planetary Science Institute, The University of Colorado, Boulder, and BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace).