Space spectrograph design to calibration

Recent societal demands in climate awareness call for rapid launch of space optical spectrographs, such as to be capable of putting state-of-the-art technology in short timeframe into orbit. As a consequence, it is of paramount importance to compress instruments’ construction schedules down to the ultimately necessary need. Because calibration and characterization (C&C) partially takes place after full instrument assembly, it is de facto on the time-plan critical path, bearing antagonist requirements: measurement accuracy shall be guaranteed without jeopardizing the instrument delivery date. To solve this problem, Airbus has explored multiple paths in order to propose an instrument's "Design for Calibration": the method consists in integrating C&C at the very beginning of the instrument development in order to respond efficiently to the identified needs. First, all planned tests are exhaustively simulated and analyzed with tools validated before measurements, ensuring full control of the overall C&C throughout the entire lifecycle of the project. Next, Airbus strongly enforces its strategy of measuring relevant parameters as soon as they are accessible, hence providing early characterization out of the critical path. Then, the remaining parameters have been thoroughly analyzed to provide a lean optical ground support equipment (OGSE) architecture capable of responding to current challenges. Moreover, it enables full automation, enforcing its time-efficiency by minimizing overheads. Although rapidity is ensured, measurement accuracies are simultaneously kept compliant. Finally, this work presents also disruptive photonics hardware investigated by Airbus to provide calibration for relaxing design: optically filtered supercontinua and optical microcombs.