Abstract
The ASTRO-F (also known as Infrared Imaging Surveyor: IRIS ) is the second infrared satellite mission of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan to be launched early 2004 with the M-V rocket and is planned as a second generation infrared sky survey mission. It has a 67-cm aperture telescope and is cooled by 170-liter liquid helium and Stirling-cycle coolers. Two scientific instruments share the focal plane. The infrared camera (IRC) covers 2 to 26 μ m range with large two-dimensional arrays in the imaging and low-resolution spectroscopic modes and will perform deep sky surveys of selected areas of the sky with a wide field of view (10' × 10') at unprecedented sensitivity. The far-infrared Surveyor (FIS), consisting of an imaging scanner and a Fourier transform spectrometer, covers 50 to 200 μ m range and makes a whole sky survey in four far-infrared bands, which is higher by more than 10 in sensitivity (20-110 mJy), better by several in the spatial resolution ( 30'' - 50'' ), and longer in the spectral coverage (200 μ m) than IRAS. A brief description and the current status of the ASTRO-F mission are presented.
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