A microshutter-based field selector for JWST's multi-object near infrared spectrograph
2007
One of the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) primary science goals is to characterize the epoch of galaxy formation in
the universe and observe the first galaxies and clusters of galaxies. This goal requires multi-band imaging and spectroscopic
data in the near infrared portion of the spectrum for large numbers of very faint galaxies. Because such objects are
sparse on the sky at the JWST resolution, a multi-object spectrograph is necessary to efficiently carry out the required
observations. We have developed a fully programmable array of microshutters that will be used as the field selector
for the multi-object Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on JWST. This device allows apertures to be opened at the
locations of selected galaxies in the field of view while blocking other unwanted light from the sky background and bright
sources. In practice, greater than 100 objects within the field of view can be observed simultaneously. This field selection
capability greatly improves the sensitivity and efficiency of NIRSpec. In this paper, we describe the microshutter arrays,
their development, characteristics, fabrication, testing, and progress toward delivery of a flight-qualified field selection
subsystem to the NIRSpec instrument team.
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