Integral is the European Space Agency's astronomical gamma-ray observatory
satellite, due for launch in early 2002. MSSL's involvement is as a member
of the consortium building the Optical Monitor Camera (OMC), the instrument
dedicated to simultaneous optical monitoring of the objects being observed
by Integral's two gamma-ray instruments and x-ray monitor.
OMC is a refracting telescope with a field-of-view of ~5 degrees and
a cooled 1024 x 1024 pixel CCD in the focal plane, capable of imaging down
to m~19.
MSSL's contributions are :-
Managing the CCD procurement
Characterisation of CCDs
Design, fabrication and testing of readout electronics (ROE) consisting
of clock sequencer, bias supplies, analogue electronics including correlated
double sampler, ADC and digital interface to data processing electronics,
power switching
Design, fabrication and testing of a PC-based EGSE to run the ROE and acquire,
display and analyse the digital images for ground testing
The CCD is a Marconi CCD47-20 back-illuminated frame transfer device
with a 1024 x 1024 pixel image area, on a custom invar plate mount.
The readout electronics are capable of running at 328 Kpixels/s with
a readout noise of ~5e- RMS.
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The Integral satellite structural model |
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| The Optical Monitor Camera (Left: Computer enhanced image. Above: Photos
taken while assembled) |
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Integral-OMC Links
INTA (Instituto Nacional de Tecnica
Aeroespacial, Spain) and LAEFF
(Laboratorio de Astrofisica Espacial y Fisica Fundamental, Spain): PI institute
for Integral-OMC, mechanical structures, power conditioning, on-board software,
AIV (assembly, integration and verification), CCD procurement
UCD
(University College Dublin, Ireland) and DIAS
(Dunsink Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland): Camera EGSE, CCD procurement,
ROE procurement, Integral Science Data Centre (ISDC)
CSL (Centre Spatial
de Liege, Belgium): Optics and Cover mechanism, AIV, calibration
Marconi
Applied Tehnologies (UK): CCD manufacturers and suppliers
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Created by Dominic Walton
