SPIDR: A Small Explorer Mission to Study WHIM

Supriya Chakrabarti

Boston University

In July, 2002 NASA selected two small explorer (SMEX) missions for flight in 2005 and 2006. The NASA Explorer Program provides frequent, low-cost access to space for physics and astronomy missions with small to mid-sized spacecraft. The Spectroscopy and Photometry of Intergalactic medium's Diffuse Radiations (SPIDR) mission was designed to apply tomographic algorithms for imaging spectroscopy in Far ultraviolet to search for and map the Cosmic Web - tenuous gas in the warm-hot (105 - 106 K) intergalactic medium (WHIM) predicted by cosmological models. In addition, it was designed to study warm-hot gas in other astrophysical environment. In May 2003 SPIDR was cancelled. It has been resubmitted and is currently in the selection cycle.

This talk will describe the scientific motivation, measurement approach and the mission design. SPIDR mission is a collaboration between several universities and industrial partners. While Boston University is the overall lead institution, Georgia State University will implement its guest investigator program.