Paper 13093-122
Paper 13093-122
Design and status of the CASTOR mission
17 June 2024 • 17:30 - 19:00 Japan Standard Time | Room G5, North - 1F
Abstract
The CASTOR mission is a wide-field, nearly diffraction-limited, 1m-diameter space telescope that is under development by the Canadian Space Agency. The telescope is being optimized for wide-field imaging at UV/blue-optical wavelengths, but also features low- and medium-resolution spectroscopic capabilities covering the 150 to 400 nm region, as well as three precision photometers for observations of exoplanet transits. In this paper, we briefly describe the current design of the mission, including payload layout, instrument suite, bus, orbit and observing plans. A companion paper provides a short description of CASTOR’s science mission and capabilities within the international landscape.
Presenter
NRC-Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics (Canada)
Deborah Lokhorst is a Herzberg Instrument Science Fellow at NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, BC. During her PhD in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, she worked with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array to observe and study galaxies. She is currently leading an expansion to the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, called the Dragonfly Spectral Line Mapper, with the ultimate goal of imaging gas in the cosmic web of dark matter.