The Gaia Spectroscopic Instrument (RVS): A Technical Challenge

Abstract

The lack of radial velocity data in the Hipparcos catalogue was considered a significant deficiency, so when Gaia was conceived, a spectrometer was a core constituent of its payload. The Gaia Radial Velocity Spectrometer faced a number of design challenges, in particular set by the need to balance kinematic and astrophysical capability. We present an overview of the evolution of the instrument to its present form, identifying the competing technical, performance and programmatic factors which have shaped it.

8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the ELSA conference "Gaia: at the frontiers of astrometry", Sèvres, Paris, June 2010, EDP Sciences (EAS Series), editors C. Turon, F. Arenou & F. Meynadier

References in corpus (4)

• The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood: Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14,000 F and G dwarfs
• Local kinematics of K and M giants from Coravel/Hipparcos/Tycho-2 data. Revisiting the concept of superclusters
• Spectroscopic survey of the Galaxy with Gaia I. Design and performance of the Radial Velocity Spectrometer
• Spectroscopic Survey of the Galaxy with Gaia II. The expected science yield from the Radial Velocity Spectrometer

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Gaia mission
• Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
• The Gaia astrophysical parameters inference system (Apsis). Pre-launch description
• Radial velocities for the Hipparcos-Gaia Hundred-Thousand-Proper-Motion project
• Chromospherically Active Stars in the RAVE Survey. II. Young dwarfs in the Solar neighborhood
• The vertical metallicity gradients of mono-age stellar populations in the Milky Way with the RAVE and Gaia data
• A test field for Gaia. Radial velocity catalogue of stars in the South Ecliptic Pole
• The Milky Way's halo in 6D: Gaia's Radial Velocity Spectrometer performance