Newton STFC-NARIT - EXOhSPEC

该项目旨在利用星表组件构建一种新型的高分辨率摄谱仪。这个概念依赖于将地球引入的复杂性与光谱仪本身的要求分离开来。这种分离使光谱仪的尺寸和复杂性大大减少，是对其他地方正在开发的自适应光学技术的自然补充。这里展示的概念可能会在下一代超大望远镜上节省数千万英镑的仪器成本，同时也可以被大学、公共和业余天文台复制，并为在更广阔的市场上购买大型低效傅立叶变换光谱仪提供一个有竞争力的选择。我们希望展示的关键发展是：(1)紧凑廉价的设计，可以在波长覆盖范围和光谱分辨率方面实现与现有仪器相同的性能；(2)系统的定制主动计量/驱动，以一小部分建设和运营成本实现甚至超越最佳波长校准稳定性，并生产原型。虽然该仪器的试验台在赫特福德大学，但实际的原型机将在泰国生产。泰国政府对泰国国家天文研究所进行了大量投资，因此他们有了新的实验室来建造仪器，并在他们新建的0.7米和2.4米望远镜上进行测试。目前的高分辨率光谱仪体积庞大，价格昂贵，难以维护，只有全球少数几所大学和团体的精英才能使用。此外，由于这些仪器非常昂贵，技术周期和设计发展很少，没有利用新材料和大量生产的光学产品的质量改进和成本降低。从某种意义上说，我们想要拥抱的技术飞跃就像第一代数码相机到现在的智能手机技术之间的飞跃。一个国家的经济发展和福利依赖于关键的基础设施和劳动力的能力。在物理学领域，特别是天体物理学领域，设计和制造仪器的能力，以及测量和解释其他行星、恒星和星系的转变特性的能力，是理解宇宙特性的关键基石。几十年来，高分辨率光谱学一直是天体物理学的主要工具，也是实现新的基础天体物理学的推动力。从发现附近恒星周围的行星到直接测量宇宙的大小。在世界范围内，高分辨率光谱仪长期以来一直是望远镜上最超额订购的仪器。虽然泰国有一个大型望远镜和一些较小的望远镜，但没有一个高分辨率的光谱仪。该提案旨在利用海外发展援助资金来发展泰国的基础设施和能力，同时开启一种新的合作，这应该对英国科学家和工程师有长期的好处。

The project is to build from catalogue components a new kind of high resolution spectrograph. The concept relies on separating the complexity introduced by Earth from the requirements on the spectrometer unit itself. This separation enables a massive reduction in size and complexity on the spectrometer side and it is the natural complement to Adaptive Optics technologies being developed elsewhere. The concepts demonstrated here might be used to save tens of millions of pounds in instrumentation costs on the coming generation of extremely large telescopes but also be reproducible by University, public and amateur observatories and offer a competitive alternative to the purchase of large inefficient Fourier transform spectrometers in the wider market place. The key developments that we wish to demonstrate are, (1) a compact inexpensive design that can achieve the same performance as existing instruments in terms of wavelength coverage and spectral resolution and (2) bespoke active metrology/actuation of the system to achieve -or even surpass- the best wavelength calibration stability at a fraction of construction and operation costs and to produce a prototype. While the testbed for this instrument is at the University of Hertfordshire, the actual prototype will be produced in Thailand. The Thai government has made a large investment in the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand and so they have the new laboratories to build the instrument and to test it on their newly built 0.7 and 2.4m telescopes. Current high resolution spectrographs are large, expensive and difficult to maintain and are reserved to an elite of a handful universities and groups around the globe. Moreover, because these instruments are so expensive, technology cycles and designs have evolved very little and do not take advantage of the great quality improvement and reduced costs of new materials and mass produced optics. In a sense, the technology leap we want to embrace is like the one between the first digital cameras to the current smartphone technology.The economic development and welfare of a country relies on key infrastructure and the capabilities of the workforce. In the field of physics and in particular astrophysics, the ability to design and make instruments and to measure and interpret the properties of the transitions in other planets, stars and galaxies is a key cornerstone to understand the properties of the Universe. High resolution spectroscopy has for decades being a primary tool of astrophysics and a driving force in enabling new fundamental astrophysics. From the discovery of planets around nearby stars to the direct measurement of the size of the Universe. Worldwide, the most oversubscribed instruments on telescopes have long been the high resolution spectrographs. Although Thailand has a large telescope and a number of smaller ones it does not have a high resolution spectrograph. The proposal is aimed at using Overseas Development Aid funding to develop Thai infrastructure and capabilities while at the same time opening up a new collaboration which should have long term benefit to the UK scientists and engineers.