Das ESBO Team beim CDR in Italien

Critical Design Review for ESBO's telescope successful

March 27, 2020 / Sarah, Bougueroua, Matthias Langer

Another milestone achieved for the European Stratospheric Balloon Observatory Design Study (ESBO DS)

The telescope Critical Design Review was successfully passed for the ESBO DS prototype mission, STUDIO.

The CDR took place on January 20th-21st at the premises of the telescope manufacturer, Officina Stellare, in Sarcedo, Italy. During the meeting, the final design of the telescope was discussed and approved. Additionally, a detailed overview of manufacturing and test plans was presented, including a visit of the integration and tests facilities of the manufacturer.

The 50-cm telescope’s primary and secondary mirrors as well as the lenses are already under manufacturing. First samples will be sent in the upcoming days for preliminary optical quality tests at the Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, in Tübingen (IAAT).

STUDIO’s optical payload will be composed of a modified Dall-Kirkham telescope, an advanced photon-counting, imaging microchannel plate (MCP) detector to measure photons in the UV band (180 to 330nm) and a visible light camera used mainly as a secondary scientific instrument and as a sensor for the fine image stabilization system.

Most of the flight hardware has already been acquired and either has been or is being tested at the IRS. The STUDIO flight is foreseen for the second half of 2021 from Esrange, in northern Sweden, enabling a search for variable hot compact stars and detection of flares from cool dwarf stars.

ESBO DS project page for further information

To the top of the page