Rocket and laboratory studies in astronomy

Abstract

This report covers the period from September 1, 1993 to August 31, 1994. During the reporting period we launched the Faint Object Telescope to measure the absolute flux of a hot white dwarf star in the spectral range below 1200 A. This experiment was not successful due to a failure of an electronics unit in the onboard TV acquisition system. The source of the failure has been identified and corrected and is described in detail below. The payload was recovered in excellent condition and we are planning to refurbish it for flight during the November 1995 Australia campaign. We have continued our laboratory studies of the ultraviolet performance of charge-coupled-detector (CCD) arrays and plan to include a UV-sensitive CCD in a new payload that was assembled during the current period. The objective of the experiment is the ultraviolet imaging of Jupiter and we are scheduled to launch the payload, 36.115UG, in May-June 1995. We have also begun the design of a high-resolution FUV spectrograph for a future flight of the FOT and have just recently received a high line density grating fabricated by Jobin-Yvon, S.A. (France) for evaluation. Work has continued on the analysis of data from previous rocket experiments.