The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), was a candidate for an M5 mission proposed in collaboration by European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). SPICA was considered as the next generation Infra-Red telescope.

 

SPICA should have been a large cooled space telescope (2.5 m diameter) able to observe Infra-Red (IR) radiations emitted 12 billion years in the past during the galaxies’ formation. It would have been developed by the University of Nagoya and the institute of Space and astronautical Science (ISAS). The main objective was to better understand the formation and the evolution of the Milky Way, the galaxies, and the planetary systems with habitable or inhabitable worlds. This cover the creation of life and where the life appeared. It would have measured between 12-350 µm (IR) to see where it is not possible with traditional telescope. The current telescopes are not able to see everything in space due to cosmic dusts which block certain types of radiations. Thus, SPICA would have looked “where astronomy is blind” currently.

 

In order to get an advanced level of observatory with a satisfying accuracy, the main telescope should have been cooled at 8K (-265°C) and would have been placed at the second Lagrange point (L2) to avoid any perturbations. Other mechanisms would have been attended such as an ultra-sensitive IR spectrometer (SAFARI), and a polarimetric imager (BBOP). SAFARI would have been a mechanism developed by a European consortium directed by SRON in Netherland. It would have been cooled down at few mK and would have been composed of 2 spectroscopic instruments in order to have a wide range in high resolution of observation which split the radiation into different colors in the aim to get a fingerprint of the chemical composition, temperature and pressure within a galaxy.

BBOP would have been developed by an international consortium under the responsibility of CEA in France.

CSL contributes to the development of both mechanism SAFARI and BBOP.

 

However, SPICA mission was canceled in October 2020 and it is no longer considered, up to now, as an M5 Mission candidate.

 

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