Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING): Instrument Design, Assembly and Calibration

TL;DR

SING is a space-based NUV spectrograph designed for observing nebulae and the interstellar medium, featuring innovative hardware, assembly, and calibration methods to enable detailed chemical studies of diffuse cosmic sources.

Contribution

This paper presents the design, assembly, and calibration processes of the novel SING spectrograph for space-based nebular observations.

Findings

Successfully designed and assembled the SING instrument.

Achieved targeted spectral and spatial resolution specifications.

Prepared the instrument for qualification testing on the Chinese Space Station.

Abstract

The Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) low-resolution spectrograph payload designed to operate in the NUV range, 1400 $\unicode{x212B}$ -- 2700 $\unicode{x212B}$, from a stable space platform. SING telescope has a primary aperture of 298 mm, feeding the light to the long-slit UV spectrograph. SING has a field of view (FOV) of 1$^{\circ}$, achieving a spatial resolution of 1.33 arc minute and spectral resolution of 3.7 $\unicode{x212B}$ ($R\sim600$) at the central wavelength. SING employs a micro-channel plate (MCP) with a CMOS readout-based photon-counting detector. The instrument is designed to observe diffuse sources such as nebulae, supernova remnants, and the interstellar medium (ISM) to understand their chemistry. SING was selected by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to be hosted on the Chinese Space Station. The instrument will undergo qualification tests as per the launch requirements. In this paper, we describe the hardware design, optomechanical assembly, and calibration of the instrument.