RAPID: Antarctic Deployment of Cryoscope

This project is to install, commission and operate a fully cryogenic, 26cm aperture near-infrared telescope at Concordia station in the Antarctic. This instrument, called the Cryoscope Pathfinder, is actually a quarter-scale prototype for a cutting edge wide-field 1-meter class telescope that will be designed for multi-messenger astrophysics. Cryoscope Pathfinder will demonstrate this new technology for the first time by conducting a survey to detect transient and time varying events in the near-infrared from Antarctica, a site with ideal conditions to showcase the improvements over previous telescopes.

Cryoscope Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator for a very wide field infrared survey telescope that will deliver the sensitivity and field of view (FOV) required to localize infrared transients such as the neutron star – black hole mergers detected by LIGO. The telescope is optimized for operation in the K_dark spectral passband which falls between the last atmospheric airglow lines at 2.35 microns and the onset of water absorption at 2.55 microns.

To take advantage of this atmospheric window, a new approach was required since established techniques cannot reduce thermal emission from the telescope below that of the darker sky while delivering the tens of square degrees FOV required for a rapid survey rate. Cryoscope Pathfinder is thus specifically designed to take advantage of the K_dark band which is unique to the cold sky over Antarctica, and it can only reach its full potential on the high plateau of Dome C due to the lower temperatures and better atmospheric stability (seeing) than are found even at the South Pole. 

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.