Lowe, Ian, Coppi, Gabriele, Ade, Peter A. R. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Abstract
The BLAST Observatory is a proposed super-pressure balloon-borne polarimeter designed for a future ultra- long duration balloon campaign from Wanaka, New Zealand. To maximize scientific output while staying within the stringent super-pressure weight envelope, BLAST will feature new 1.8m off-axis optical system contained within a lightweight monocoque structure gondola. The payload will incorporate a 300 L <sup>4</sup>He cryogenic receiver which will cool 8,274 microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) to 100mK through the use of an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) in combination with a <sup>3</sup>He sorption refrigerator all backed by a liquid helium pumped pot operating at 2 K. The detector readout utilizes a new Xilinx RFSOC-based system which will run the next-generation of the BLAST-TNG KIDPy software. With this instrument we aim to answer outstanding questions about dust dynamics as well as provide community access to the polarized submillimeter sky made possible by high-altitude observing unrestricted by atmospheric transmission. The BLAST Observatory is designed for a minimum 31-day flight of which 70% will be dedicated to observations for BLAST scientific goals and the remaining 30% will be open to proposals from the wider astronomical community through a shared-risk proposals program....
Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Poster) |
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Date Type: | Published Online |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Physics and Astronomy |
Publisher: | SPIE |
Last Modified: | 20 Apr 2023 10:01 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/156719 |
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