Kuiper Airborne Observatory
The Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) is an airplane that flies above most of the Earth's atmosphere with an infrared telescope. KAO allows scientists to gather astronomical data that is unavailable from Earth. By conducting observations from above the atmosphere, infrared radiation can be measured. Due to water vapor, useful infrared observations from the Earth's surface are not possible. The Earth's lower atmosphere absorbs most infrared rays (IR) coming from above so that few reach the surface. However, an airplane flying in the stratosphere at 40000 feet or higher has most of the atmosphere below it and can see the sky in the infrared. While satellites have also made infrared measurements, an aircraft can carry a crew and much more equipment and can be modified and reused. The Kuiper aircraft has been flying over 20 years. The Kuiper aircraft is a Lockheed C-141 transport modified to carry an infrared telescope. The telescope is mounted in the aircraft so that it can move independently. An automatic system keeps the telescope pointed at the selected astronomical object even when the aircraft moves in turbulence. Liquid nitrogen and other cryogenic liquids cool the mirrors of the telescope so they don't create infrared radiation themselves. The telescope mirrors gather infrared from a large area, a circle about one yard in diameter, and concentrate it on a detector. Various detectors may be attached and these are also cooled.
US $1.00
i had friends who were working on this plane,and i got to see the plane,and some of the amazing photos that they took,i don,t know if they still work for nasa,i must find out?
i have friends who work for nasa on this project,it was very interesting,i saw onboard this plane,amazing what they can do!!!
It seems that they’ve given up on the ACS now.
Fortunately the WFC3 to be installed during SM4 is even more powerful than the ACS.
Now we hope and pray until the hubble repair mission next year.
I’m looking at doing a vid on its successor SOFIA.
It sounds like all is not lost with the ACS, as its main system is partly functional – I guess we’ll hear soon.
Thanks for posting Bruno. I didn’t know about a lot of this, very cool.
I guess you’ve heard about Hubble?