Instrument performance matters in every scientific endeavour, but none more so than in space exploration.
Now that satellites armed with an arsenal of instruments are setting out into deep space, astronomers are no longer earthbound in their ability to observe the heavens. The demands placed on these devices could hardly be more contradictory: They have to be precisely calibrated and very sensitive, yet rugged enough to defy the fatigue imposed by years of exposure to the most inhospitable conditions.
Many NASA and ESA missions would be all but inconceivable without spectrographs. Combining spectral decomposition and selective imaging capabilities, these instruments are the best probes we have to study the nature of distant stars, galaxies and the remnants of the universe’s primordial history. This requires sophisticated optical telescopes, filters, coronographic apertures, slicing elements and diffractive elements as well as the ability to perform at cryogenic temperature with arcsec accuracy.
HENSOLDT delivers components with precisely the capabilities that space spectrographs need. Built on the bedrock of half a century’s experience in space-borne optics, each component of every solution can be customised to your specifications.
