5 research outputs found
FIRI - a Far-Infrared Interferometer
Half of the energy ever emitted by stars and accreting objects comes to us in
the FIR waveband and has yet to be properly explored. We propose a powerful
Far-InfraRed Interferometer mission, FIRI, to carry out high-resolution imaging
spectroscopy in the FIR. This key observational capability is essential to
reveal how gas and dust evolve into stars and planets, how the first luminous
objects in the Universe ignited, how galaxies formed, and when super-massive
black holes grew. FIRI will disentangle the cosmic histories of star formation
and accretion onto black holes and will trace the assembly and evolution of
quiescent galaxies like our Milky Way. Perhaps most importantly, FIRI will
observe all stages of planetary system formation and recognise Earth-like
planets that may harbour life, via its ability to image the dust structures in
planetary systems. It will thus address directly questions fundamental to our
understanding of how the Universe has developed and evolved - the very
questions posed by ESA's Cosmic Vision.Comment: Proposal developed by a large team of astronomers from Europe, USA
and Canada and submitted to the European Space Agency as part of "Cosmic
Vision 2015-2025
Flight Development for Cryogenic Fluid Management in Support of Exploration Missions
This paper describes the results of the "Experimentation for the Maturation of Deep Space Cryogenic Refueling Technology" study. The purposes of this study were to identify cryogenic fluids management technologies requiring low gravity flight experiments to bring to technology readiness level (TRL) 5-6; to study many possible flight experiment options; and to develop near-term low-cost flight experiment concepts to mature core technologies of refueling. A total of twenty-five white papers were prepared in the course of this study. Each white paper is briefly summarized and relevant references cited. A total of 90 references are cited
Testing critical point universality along the l - line
We are currently building a prototype for a new test of critical-point universality at the lambda
transition in ⁴He, which is to be performed in microgravity conditions. The flight experiment will
measure the second-sound velocity as a function of temperature at pressures from 1 to 30 bars in the
region close to the lambda line. The critical exponents and other parameters characterizing the behavior
of the superfluid density will be determined from the measurements. The microgravity measurements
wdl be quite extensive, probably taking 30 days to complete. In addition to the superfluid density, some
measurements of the specific heat will be made using the low-g simulator at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. The results of the superfluid density and specific heat measurements will be used to compare
the asymptotic exponents and other universal aspects of the superfluid density with the theoretical
predictions currently established by renormalization group techniques