MAJIS instrument characterization

Abstract

The JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission by ESA aims to explore the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants. MAJIS (Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer) is the visible to near-infrared imaging spectrometer onboard JUICE which will characterize the surfaces and exospheres of the icy moons and perform monitoring of the Jupiter atmosphere. The launch is scheduled for June 2022 with the first MAJIS observations inside the Jovian system occurring more than 7.5 years later. MAJIS will use two Teledyne H1RG detectors for both spectrometer channels (VIS-NIR and IR). For this mission, they will be operated in a non-standard way. The detectors will allow near/full-frame retrieval over short integration times (<< 1 sec) while maintaining good noise performance. This is due to the relatively high levels of irradiance of the targets compared to the detector well depths, and to mitigate the high rate of radiation spikes from the Jovian environment. Additionally, the detectors will operate at higher temperatures than previous space missions due to stringent resources constraints, impacting the dark current levels. We will present the characterization strategy suitable for evaluating the performances of the VIS-NIR and MW-IR channel according to the MAJIS operational specifications. This methodology was tested during two characterization campaigns using two MAJIS Engineering Grade detectors. The first campaign was performed at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale for the MW-IR detector. The second campaign was performed at the Institut royal d'Aeronomie Spatiale de Belgique for the VIS-NIR detector. This MSc thesis will describe the analyses and results of both campaigns. Based on these results, the capacity of MAJIS to reach its scientific objectives will be discussed.