Upgrade of Vacuum UV Detector Calibration Facility

莱斯特大学物理和天文学系内的空间研究中心在空间科学方面有着悠久的传统，自1967年以来，每年都有一台由莱斯特建造的仪器在地球轨道及更远的地方运行。空间研究中心在与美国航天局、欧空局、英国航天局、印度空间研究组织(印度)和日本宇宙航空研究开发机构(日本)等空间机构进行的天文、行星和地球观测科学飞行任务的许多空间飞行任务中发挥了重要作用。空间仪器的不断开发和生产需要专门的定制设施，以支持飞行任务早期阶段的研究和开发，以及飞行仪器所需的特性任务。其中一个设施最初是在1980年代后期为ROSAT任务组装的，是真空紫外线探测器校准设施(VUV-DCF)，用于从200 nm到10 nm的仪器的多波长测试和校准，在这些仪器中，紫外线被分子氧强烈吸收，需要真空环境。这一开发满足了英国学术研究团体和商业制造商的战略需求，他们在开发200 nm以下紫外线波长的最先进探测器系统方面拥有深厚的传统，适用于天文、国防、空间气象、地球遥感等应用。这些设备包括：LSAS太阳B：极端紫外线成像光谱仪哈勃空间望远镜：广视场相机3日地关系天文台太阳动力学观测台TEIS MKA-FKL-PN5阿尔卡望远镜。具体地说，这次设施升级将为目前正在开发的下列仪器提供重要支助：世界空间天文台-UV：WUVS仪器-光谱仪(Teledyne-2v)。世界空间观测站--紫外线：成像和无缝隙光谱仪(ISISIS)(Photek)。世界空间观测站--UV：现场摄像单位(马德里国立大学)。越来越多的中国集团参与开发空间气象卫星星座(Photek)然而，目前还没有基于英国的最新真空紫外线测量设备来对这类仪器进行绝对校准，这既是现成的，也是提供绝对校准标准的。这样的设施是英国研究团体和行业能够测量和验证仪器性能以及更广泛地展示其技术能力的先决条件。位于莱斯特的VUV-DCF设施是在20世纪90年代投产的，S提供了这种能力。然而，由于更换寿命有限的硬件的基本部件，如真空泵、控制电子和软件、校准标准探测器、阀门、密封件、光源等的资金有限，该系统已被淘汰。为了满足这一需求，我们提出了一个综合计划，即(I)翻新，更换老化的硬件，加上(Ii)升级，以提高设施的能力，使其符合当今的要求，方法是增加新的紫外线源和校准标准，将波长覆盖范围扩大到200 nm以上，以适应广泛的仪器，全国可用的设施(可供英国所有学术团体和行业使用)是维持英国在紫外线天文学国际空间飞行任务中的领导地位的先决条件，并将提供能力，继续进行紫外光阴极、探测器和系统的开创性创新、研究和开发。

The Space Research Centre (SRC) within the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester has a long heritage in space science which has seen a Leicester-built instrument operating in earth orbit and beyond for every year since 1967. The SRC has played significant roles in many space missions with space agencies including NASA, ESA, UKSA, ISRO (India) and JAXA (Japan), for astronomical, planetary and Earth observation science missions. This continuous development and production of space instruments requires specialist custom facilities to support both research and development in early mission phases, and the characterisation tasks required for flight instruments. One such facility, originally assembled in later 1980s for the ROSAT mission, is the Vacuum UV Detector Calibration Facility (VUV-DCF), required for the multi-wavelength test and calibration of instruments from 200 nm down to 10 nm where UV is strongly absorbed by molecular oxygen and a vacuum environment is required. The development fulfils a strategic need of the UK academic research groups and commercial manufacturers who have a strong heritage in the development of state-of-the-art detector systems at UV wavelengths below 200 nm for applications such as astronomy, defence, space weather, earth remote sensing, etc.. These have included: lSAS Solar B: Extreme UV Imaging Spectrograph Hubble Space Telescope: Wide field camera 3 Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) Solar Dynamics Observatory TESIS MKA-FKl-PN5 ARKA Telescope.Specifically, this facility upgrade would provide important support for the following instruments currently under development: World Space Observatory-UV: WUVS instrument - spectrographs (Teledyne-e2v). World Space Observatory-UV: Imaging and Slitless Spectroscopy Instrument (ISSIS) (Photek). World Space Observatory-UV: Field Camera Unit (FCU) (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Growing involvement with Chinese groups developing e.g. space weather satellite constellations (Photek)However there is currently no up-to-date UK-based vacuum UV measurement facility for absolute calibration of such instruments which is both readily available, and provides an absolute calibration standard. Such as facility is a prerequisite for UK research groups and industry to be able to measure and verify instrument performance and more broadly, demonstrate their technological capabilities.The VUV-DCF facility at Leicester was commissioned in the 90's and provided that capability. However, the system has fallen into disuse due to limited funds to replace essential components of the hardware that have limited lifetime e.g. vacuum pumps, control electronics and software, calibration standard detectors, valves, seals, light sources, etc. To address this need, we propose a combined programme of (i) refurbishment, to replace ageing hardware, plus (ii) upgrade, to improve the capabilities of the facility bringing it up to date with respect to today's requirements, by adding the new UV sources and calibration standards, extending wavelength coverage above 200 nm to accommodate broad range instruments, and updating facility control and automation software to use the latest operating system.A nationally available facility (available to all academic groups and industry within the UK) is a prerequisite to sustain UK leadership roles on international space missions in UV astronomy and will provide the capability to continue ground-breaking innovation, research and development of UV photocathodes, detectors and systems.