Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T14:10:24.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ALOFT: A Potential Low Frequency Space VLBI Mission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2016

Hisashi Hirabayashi
Affiliation:
Institute for Space and Astronautical Science, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan
Ian M. Avruch
Affiliation:
Institute for Space and Astronautical Science, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan
David W. Murphy
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS238-332, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We present a preliminary study of A LOw Frequency Orbiting Telescope (ALOFT) which co-observes with ground radio telescopes, in a similar fashion to the current VSOP mission. Our current straw-man ALOFT mission has a spacecraft operating at three frequency bands (0.33, 0.6, and 1.4—1.6 GHz) in an orbit with a 10,000 km apogee height. It should be relatively low cost as the lower frequencies less stringently constrain the design, for example uncooled receivers, narrower bandwidth, and simple antennae. The major science goal to be addressed by this mission is to examine scattering phenomena through the technique of space VLBI, although other problems, such as AGN physics, can of course also be addressed.

Type
Part 9: Instrumentation and Techniques
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2002 

References

Ananthakrishnan, A., et al., 1989, MNRAS, 237, 341 Google Scholar
Basart, J. P., et al., 1997, Radio Science, 32, 251275 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blandford, R., Narayan, R., & Romani, R., 1986, ApJ, 301, L53 Google Scholar
Goodman, J., & Narayan, R., 1989, MNRAS, 238, 995 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayan, R., & Goodman, J., 1989, MNRAS, 238, 963 Google Scholar
Rickett, B. J., 1990, ARA&A, 28, 561 Google Scholar