Programmatics and development update for the Orion MIDEX star formation survey mission

Abstract

The Orion MIDEX mission is a 1.2m UV-visual observatory orbiting at L2 that will conduct the first-ever high spatial resolution survey of a statistically significant sample of visible star-forming environments in the Solar neighborhood in emission lines and continuum. This survey will be used to characterize the star and planet forming environments within 2.5 kpc of the Sun, infer global properties and star formation histories in these regions, understand how environment influences the process of star and planet formation, and develop a classification scheme for star forming regions. Based on these findings a similar survey will be conducted of large portions of the Magellanic Clouds, extending the classification scheme to new types of regions common in external galaxies, allowing the characterization of low mass star forming environments in the Magellanic Clouds, study of the spatial distribution of star forming environments and tracing of star formation history. Finally the mission will image a sample of external galaxies out to ~5 Mpc. The distribution of star forming region type will be mapped as a function of galactic environment to infer the distribution and history of low-mass star formation over galactic scales, and characterize the stellar content and star formation history of galaxies. We present in this paper an update on the development of the mission and the hardware necessary to deliver its required performance.© (2006) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.