VenSpec-U is one of the three channels of the VenSpec suite onboard the ESA’s mission Envision to Venus, whose launch is foreseen in 2031. It is a UV spectrometer operating in the 190-380 nm range aiming at analyzing the sulfured gases in the high atmosphere of Venus by absorption spectroscopy and investigating the unknown “UV absorber”, thus contributing to answer one of the key questions the Envision mission will address: “How has Venus’ climate become so hostile”. VenSpec-U, developed under LATMOS (Guyancourt, France) PI-ship, is part of the spectrometer suite named ”VenSpec” led by DLR (Berlin, Germany). This manuscript provides an overview of the current instrument design, at the time of the end of phase B1/early phase B2.
The DDRAGO instrument for COLIBRI 1.3 meter telescope of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, México, will be installed in mid-2024. The structural design of DDRAGO was carried out by applying specific techniques for the development of astronomical instruments. At this work is decribed the mass budget, errors, and mechanical tolerances developed to fulfill the scientific objectives of DDRAGO, as well as the manufacturing methods carried out to satisfy the required geometrical specifications. Also, manufacturing processes such as grinding of reference surfaces of the structural plates, CNC manufacturing, precision drilling and tapping, and anodizing are described. The mechanical assembly of the mechanical support structure was performed in two stages. The first one, for verifying the correct integration of all the structural plates with each other and with the rest of the mechanical components that are supported by it. Then, to ensure compliance with the dimensions and geometric tolerances of the assembled structure before anodizing, the general dimensional metrology was performed with the use of a coordinate machine.
Once the structure was verified and accepted, anodizing was performed. An interesting aspect of this process is that we were able to measure the dimensional difference, as well as the repeatability of the assembly process, before and after anodizing. Finally, the dimensional acceptance reports of the DDRAGO instrument structure are shown and a series of guidelines for the manufacture, assembly, integration, and validation for mechanical structures in astronomical instrumentation are proposed.
DDRAGO is the first light instrument for the 1.3-m COLIBRÍ robotic telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional, San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, México (OAN-SPM). COLIBRI was developed by France and Mexico in support of the Sino-French SVOM satellite with its ECLAIRs instrument, designed to provide initial follow-up of GRBs. DDRAGO will also support a much wider program of observations of transient and multi-messenger sources. It is a wide-field multi-channel imager consisting of two parts: DDRAGO and CAGIRE. DDRAGO has blue and red channels, and it also delivers an infrared beam to the CAGIRE imager which will be installed soon after. Here we briefly recall the design and discuss the prototyping, fabrication, integration, and verification of DDRAGO. The installation and commissioning of the instrument at the OAN will start shortly.
The COLIBRÍ robotic observatory is being developed for observing the optical counterparts of GRBs detected by the SVOM satellite. It will be located at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir, México. The project is a collaboration between France and México. For this purpose the astronomical instrument DDRAGO is under the last phase of critical design and starting its construction. The structural design techniques applied for developing DDRAGO are described. The mechanical calculations and finite element analysis of the instrument are included and translated into their respective error budget.
Cosmic explosions have emerged as a major field of astrophysics over the last years with our increasing capability to monitor large parts of the sky in different wavelengths and with different messengers (photons, neutrinos, and gravitational waves). In this context, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) play a very specific role, as they are the most energetic explosions in the Universe. The forthcoming Sino-French SVOM mission will make a major contribution to this scientific domain by improving our understanding of the GRB phenomenon and by allowing their use to understand the infancy of the Universe. In order to fulfill all of its scientific objectives, SVOM will be complemented by a fast robotic 1.3 m telescope, COLIBRI, with multiband photometric capabilities (from visible to infrared). This telescope is being jointly developed by France and Mexico. The telescope and one of its instruments are currently being extensively tested at OHP in France and will be installed in Mexico in spring 2023.
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