NASA selects infrared space telescope PRIMA featuring Groningen's technology

NASA has selected the far-infrared space telescope PRIMA as its Probe mission. It will be the first space telescope with an actively cooled mirror, at 4.5 degrees Kelvin. This reduces noise to such an extent that PRIMA is one thousand to one hundred thousand times more sensitive than its predecessors. SRON Space Research Organisation Netherlands, Delft University of Technology, and the University of Groningen plan to deliver the detectors, housing, and insulation of the PRIMAger instrument.

The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) is scheduled to launch in 2033 to Lagrange point L2. PRIMA is ideally suited to observe the first galaxies. These are surrounded by dust that infrared light can uniquely illuminate. Due to the expansion of the Universe, this light reaches us as far-infrared radiation.

Willem Jellema from SRON and affiliate researcher of Engineering and Technology institute Groningen co-leads the Dutch contribution in this technology together with Lorenza Ferrari and Jochem Baselmans. Drawing on 15 years of experience and developed technology from an earlier mission concept, SRON and the RUG are also contributing to the system design, integration, and testing of PRIMAger’s flight hardware.

We congratulate and wish Willem Jellema luck in this exciting endeavour.

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