Pre-flight optical test and calibration for the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment 2 (CIBER-2)

The total integrated emission from galaxies, known as the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL), is an important observable for understanding the history of star formation over the history of the universe. Spatial fluctuations in the infrared EBL as measured by the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER), Spitzer and AKARI exceed the predicted signal from galaxy clustering alone. The CIBER-2 project seeks to extend CIBER observa- tions of the EBL throughout the near infrared into the optical, through measurements above Earth's atmosphere during a suborbital sounding rocket flight. The experiment has a LN2-cooled 28.5 cm Cassegrain telescope along with three optical paths and dichroic beamsplitters, which are used to obtain three wide-field images in six broad spectral bands between 0.5-2.0 μm. The three focal planes also contain linear variable filters (LVFs) which simultaneously take spectra with resolution R=20 across the same range. CIBER-2 is scheduled to y multiple times on a Black Brant IX sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range in the New Mexico desert. For the first flight, scheduled for early 2021, we have completed a variety of pre-flight optical tests, which we use to make focus adjustments, spectral response measurements, and absolute photometric calibrations. In this paper, we describe the methods behind these tests and present their results for pre-flight performance evaluation. In particular, we present measurements of the PSF for each broad spectral band, along with absolute calibration factors for each band and the LVF. Through monochromator scans, we also measure the spectral responsivity of each LVF as a function of position

Development of data storage system and GSE for cosmic infrared background experiment 2 (CIBER-2)

Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment-2 (CIBER-2) is an international project to make a rocket-borne measurement of the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) using three HAWAII-2RG image sensors. Since the rocket telemetry is unable to downlink all the image data in real time, we adopt an onboard data storage board for each sensor electronics. In this presentation, the development of the data storage board and the Ground Station Electronics (GSE) system for CIBER2 are described. We have fabricated, integrated, and tested all systems and confirmed that all work as expected, and are ready for flight