A Belgian Space Odyssey

or The impulse of a Belgian/French collaboration

JM. Defise, CSL The pre-EIT era

Space Astrophysics activities in Belgium Belgium joins ISO CSL, KUL PRODEX @ ESA 1996 HIPPARCOS 1995 CSL, ROB 1993 IAL Space becomes a coordinated test facility 1990 of ESA 1989 1988 GIOTTO HUBBLE / FOC IAL Space, ULg IAL Space 1985 Auroral IUE Sounding 1978 follow up of Rockets TD1 science 1974 ULg, MH, VUB, ROB 1972 TD1 S2/68 (P. Swings) ULg, MH, VUB The EIT era

Genesis… EIT was proposed by IAS and selected for the SOHO payload in 1988. After GOLF and SUMER, EIT had not enough resources for full development in France.

PI desperatly seeking Belgium & USA offered their for a PM and a Project Team contribution

EIT became the first Belgian PRODEX project

PROgramme de Développement d’EXériences scientifiques The EIT era

• IAL Space (P. Rochus) provided the project office • ROB (P. Cugnon) provided calibration and scientific support • NRL (D. Michels) provided the detector and the electronics PI desperatly seeking Belgium & USA offered their • LMfor a(R. PM Catura) and a Project provided Team technical and science support contribution EIT became the first Belgian PRODEX project

PROgramme de Développement d’EXpériences scientifiques Development of EIT: a few challenges

Superpolished EUV optics Thermal refocussing Vacuum tight during launch EUV cleanliness EUV enhanced CCD … and designing an instrument in Belgium with a French PI…. The post-EIT era with PRODEX (at )

The success of EIT (development and science outcomes) has been a key factor: All the next Belgian scientific payloads have been developed within the PRODEX programme.

A few derivatives with EIT collaborations/heritage: EIT Calibration Rocket (1995-1997) Built with spare hardware and launched in 1997, EIT CALROC provided a set of reference data for calibration of the SOHO/EIT data. The post-EIT era with PRODEX (at )

The HELIOSPHERIC IMAGERS of SECCHI/STEREO The post-EIT era with PRODEX (at )

SWAP on PROBA-2 • EUV telescope to be launched on a micro-S/C for technological demonstration • Launch scheduled for mid 2007

λ = 17.5 n The post-EIT era with PRODEX (at ) • The FUV Spectrometer on IMAGE • The XMM NEWTON-OM (Optical Monitor) • The INTEGRAL/OMC (Opt. Monitor) • Contribution to COROT (Baffle & Equipt bay) • HERSCHEL PACS (grating & electronics) • JWST MIRI (optics & structure, electronics) from folks !