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Instrument Development

Details
Over the last 25 years, CASS and its predecessor research groups have made a specialty of developing detectors for the rigorous space regime. CASS instruments were flown on three Orbiting Solar Observatories (OSOs), Pioneer 9 and 10, Apollo 16 and 17, Spacecraft Charging (SCATHA), High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO 1) and others. In the case of the Pioneers, these instruments are still working after 15 years; in most other cases our instruments were still functional upon re-entry of the carrier spacecraft.

Details
The Digicon detectors used on both FOS and GHRS spectrographs on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) were invented by current CASS personnel. UCSD was the prime contractor of one of the HST instruments, the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS), a highly reliable science instrument on HST. Other current projects include the High Energy X-Ray Telescope Experiment (HEXTE), a 900-lb. cluster of CASS-built detectors and electronics due for launch in 1995 on the X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE) into low Earth orbit. A particle and fields sensor for Hydra will also be launched at the end of 1995. Current, near- or non-space instruments include future instrument prototypes being readied for balloon flights to 130,000 ft, which has been an on-going activity for the past 25 years. In addition, the Long-Wave Spectrometer (LWS) has been delivered for the recently-completed and world's-largest telescope at the Keck Observatory on Mona Kea, Hawaii. This is a 96x96 array imaging spectrometer operating in the mid-infrared. Another IR detector, the "Golden Gopher", is now operational at Mt. Lemmon. It is an 80x64 element camera operating at 10-20 microns.

UCSD Chemistry - Apollo 16, 17 x- and gamma-ray detectors used for resource-mapping of the Moon.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography - Deep Ocean Bioluminescence detectors.
UCSD Medical School - Astronaut Lung Function Experiment shuttle-borne apparatus and ground support equipment.
NASA/MarshallSFC - 8 BATSE detectors on Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
University of New Hampshire - Instrument for Cluster satellite.
NASA/Goddard SFC - Hubble GHRS detector support.

Details
In 1982 CASS put its expertise in designing and fabricating detectors at the service of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The detectors used to detect celestial x-rays by the faint flash generated in crystalline detectors were found equally proficient at detecting faint bioluminescence in the oceanic depths. An array of detectors was submerged deep in the Pacific for Project Bioluminescence. CASS personnel also designed Space Lab support systems for the UCSD School of Medicine's Astronaut Lung Function Experiment (ALFE), helping with experiment equipment layout, ground support equipment and associated software. More recently, CASS built all eight modules for the cosmic gamma ray Burst and Transient Survey Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO). Ground-based and airborne near-IR to mid-IR cameras were also built for NASA We are building the mechanical portions of the Electron Drift Experiment (EDI) for the multi-satellite Cluster mission to study interplanetary particles and fields. This is the first electron detector able to view an entire hemisphere. In support, we have developed a PC-controlled automated test facility that runs autonomously for up to 10 hours in determining the optimum HV settings for various detector regimes.