CCD cameras and Spacewire interfaces for HERSCHEL/SCORE suborbital mission

Abstract

The HERSCHEL/SCORE is a suborbital mission which will observe the solar corona in UV and in visible light for measurements of solar corona. The coronagraph for such observation is an Italian instrument and, in particular, the CCD camera detectors are developed at the XUVLab of the Department of Astronomy and Space Science of Florence University. Such detectors communicate with the onboard computer by means the IEEE1355 Spacewire standard interface (developed in our laboratories) and implement a lot of smart and custom procedures for imaging.The main innovation of SCORE coronagraph is the first use in space of a variable retarder plate based on liquid crystals and the optical design capable of simultaneous observation in UV and Visible light.

HERSCHEL/SCORE, imaging the solar corona in visible and EUV light: CCD camera characterization

“…During the flight, the VLD and the LCVR polarimeter provide sequences of four images, each one taken with a different orientation of the polarimeter axis. The camera has custom electronics which provides the required control signals for the detector (bias voltages, clocks), manages the acquisition sequence, and controls the liquid crystal variable retardation [8]. One of the constraints in the VLD design was the short observing time available during the mission; we optimized the camera operations to reduce all overhead time due to functional procedures not concerning the observation (image readout, download, camera-on-board computer handshaking, etc.).…”