JCUVA Activities

 

 

 

Jornada de Exploración Espacial desde la Luna

Charla virtual, 2 de junio de 2021

El pasado 2 de junio tuvo lugar de manera virtual la "Jornada de Exploración Espacial desde la Luna" organizada por el Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial (CDTI, España), Joint Center for Ultraviolet Astronomy (Universidad Complutense de Madrid y el Instituto de Astronomía de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia) y la Asociación Española de Derecho Aeronáutico y Espacial (AEADE, España).

Durante el transcurso de la Jornada se describieron los diversos retos tecnológicos, legales y de gestión que se deben afrontar en la exploración de nuestro satélite. Los diversos ponentes fueron: Ana I Gómez de Castro, del Centro JCUVA-UCM España, Juan Carlos Cortés del CDTI, Bernard Foing de la Agencia Espacial Europea (ESA), Stanislav Makarchuk de la Agencia Espacial Argentina, Salvador Landeros de la Agencia Espacial Mexicana, Joan Manel Casalta de la empresa SENER, Rafael Harillo de la Asociación Española de Derecho Aeronáutico y Espacial (AEDAE), León J. Restrepo Quirós del Nodo Andino OAD, y Mikhail Sachkov del Instituto de Ciencias de Rusia (INASAN).

Las ponencias al completo están disponibles en la web :Ir a la página de la Jornada

 

 

5th Workshop of the Network for Ultraviolet Astronomy

Virtual meeting OCtober 27th - 29th, 2020

The 5th NUVA (Network for Ultraviolet Astronomy) virtual workshop, "Ultraviolet Astronomy in the XXI Century", took place from 27th to 29th October.

This workshop aimed to evaluate the scientific needs for the investigation of the origin of life, exoplanetary research, formation of stars at all scales and the chemical evolution of the Universe. Therefore, the workshop activities included the revision of the state of current and future instrumentation, projects and technologies.

This meeting also allowed the coordination needs around new projects. With around 30 presentations of very high quality, different open discussion sessions and nearly 150 simultaneous participants per day, this NUVA workshop was a unique successful event gathering together the world wide UV community. In addition, this meeting has settled the discussions leading to define a standard photometric system for Ultraviolet Astronomy.

The infrastructure required for hosting this virtual workshop was provided by JCUVA. As such, the facilities from JCUVA control centre allowed the Local Organising Committee to monitor the meeting and to provide support to all participants from around the globe.

more information in: https://www.nuva.eu/home-virtual-meeting/

 

Testing of the MCP detector for the Field Camera Unit (FCU) has started

29th November 2019 at Photek (Hastings, UK)

The testing of the engineering model of the Micro Channels Plate (MCP) detector to be used in the Field Camera Unit (FCU) on board the Spektr-UF / WSO-UV space telescope has started. These activities are the first step for preparing the qualification campaign that will take place during 2020. 

Team members of the UCM AEGORA group and personnel from SENER company visited Photek premises in November this year and checked these activities in place. The FCU MCP detector transforms incoming UV photons into optical photons that are detected by a fast and configurable CMOS device. The development of this UV instrumentation represents an important technological challenge because it requires optics of nanometric precision and specific detectors with a strict control of any contamination. 

The UCM is supervising the scientific aspects of the Far-Ultraviolet channel of the FCU, developing the necessary processing algorithms and coordinating the industrial activities within the overall instruments definition and integration with INASAN and others Russian partners.

 

3D image of the Spektr-UF / WSO-UV Field Camera Unit (FCU). The MCP detector of the FUV channel is seen in the red circle

The UV radiation coming from the source gets amplified in the MCP and generates showers of photons. Current activities focus on the analysis and characterisation of the centroids corresponding to these showers, as seen in the figure.

 

The commemoration day of the arrival of man on the moon on its 50th anniversary Event

19-20th July 2019 at Robledo de Chavela, Madrid.

The commemoration day of the arrival of man on the moon on its 50th anniversary event, took place at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) in Robledo de Chavela, Madrid on 19th and 20th july, 2019.


MDSCC, is one of the three stations of the NASA deep space network - “from the Moon to there” - that completes the list with those of Goldstone (United States) and Canberra (Australia), the only network that communicates with the satellites of the US space agency. These places of maximum scientific interest were of paramount importance in this astronomical milestone of the arrival of man on the moon.

The principal investigator of JCUVA and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences of the UCM, Ana Inés Gómez de Castro participated in these conferences as a speaker, as well as Anthony Carro, Ángel Martín Álvarez, David Montes and Carlos González Pintado, guided by professor Carlos César Álvarez Nebred.

 

 

 

 

More info at: https://tribuna.ucm.es/revcul/tribunacomplutense/43/art3796.php#.XTgiffIzaUl and https://www.agenciasinc.es/Reportajes/La-nueva-carrera-a-la-Luna-50-anos-despues

 

 

Preliminary Design Review (PDR) meeting of the Spektr-UF / WSO-UV Field Camera Unit

20th - 24th May 2019 at INASAN, Moscow, Russia.

 


The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) meeting of the Spektr-UF / WSO-UV Field Camera Unit took place in INASAN (Moscow) on 20-May-2019, with attendees from Russia (INASAN, IKI, LA), Spain (UCM, SENER) and Japan (Rikkyo University). The current statuses of the Spektr-UF / WSO-UV project and the FCU instrument were presented. The baselines for the FCU optical and mechanical designs, electrical units and operational algorithms were also presented and reviewed. Finally, the feasibility of adding new channels with coronography capabilities was also considered.

As follow up of this PDR, the teams visited the Spektr-UF / WSO-UV AIV facilities located at NPO Lavochkin. In addition, scientific meetings and presentations were held during that week, regarding the preparatory observations belonging to the proposals that have been accepted in the first Core Program Call.