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Roibas-Millan, ElenaAuthorTorralbo, IgnacioAuthorRubio-Arnaldo, HiginioAuthorAlvarez, Jose MiguelAuthor

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January 1, 2025
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Design of the VenSpec-H instrument on ESA's EnVision mission: development of critical elements, highlighting the wavefront corrector and grating

Publicated to: Journal of Applied Remote Sensing. 19 (1): 014523- - 2025-01-01, DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.19.014523

Authors:

De Cock, Roderick; Robert, Severine; Neefs, Eddy; Erwin, Justin; Vervaeke, Michael; Thienpont, Hugo; Renotte, Etienne; Klinkenberg, Philippe; Borguet, Benoit; Thomas, Solal; Moelans, Wouter; Algoedt, Aaron; De Vos, Lieve; Sorensen, Ramatha; Blau, Moshe; Carine Vandaele, Ann; Thomas, Ian R; Berkenbosch, Sophie; Jacobs, Lars; Bogaert, Pieter; Beeckman, Bram; Brassine, Ansje; Messios, Neophytos; De Donder, Erwin; Bolsee, David; Pereira, Nuno; Ristic, Bojan; Tackley, Paul J; Gerya, Taras; Kogl, Stefan; Kogl, Paola; Grobelbauer, Hans-Peter; Wirz, Florian; Szekely, Gerhard Stefan; Eaton, Nick; Roibas-Millan, Elena; Torralbo, Ignacio; Rubio-Arnaldo, Higinio; Alvarez, Jose Miguel; Ortega, Daniel Navajas; Stam, Daphne; Castro-Marin, Jose M; Ortega, Jaime Jimenez; Lara, Luisa; Helbert, Joern; Alemanno, Giulia; Marcq, Emmanuel
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Affiliations

AMOS, Angleur, Belgium - Author
CSIC, Inst Astrofis Andalucia IAA, Granada, Spain - Author
Deutsch Zentrum Luft & Raumfahrt eV, Berlin, Germany - Author
Eidgenoss TH ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland - Author
Fachhsch Nordwestschweiz FHNW, Windisch, Switzerland - Author
Flanders Make, Brussels, Belgium - Author
Hsch Luzern HSLU, Horw, Switzerland - Author
Leiden Observ, Leiden, Netherlands - Author
OIP Space Instruments, Oudenaarde, Belgium - Author
Royal Belgian Inst Space Aeron, BIRA IASB, Brussels, Belgium - Author
Sorbonne Univ, UVSQ Univ Paris Saclay, CNRS, LATMOS,IPSL, Guyancourt, France - Author
Space Acoust, Rafz, Switzerland - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Inst Univ Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva IDR, Madrid, Spain - Author
Vrije Univ Brussel, Dept Appl Phys & Photon B PHOT TONA, Brussels Photon, Brussels, Belgium - Author
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Abstract

EnVision is the European Space Agency's upcoming mission to Venus with a launch scheduled in 2031. One of the payloads on board is the Venus Spectrometers (VenSpec) suite, containing three spectrometer channels, one of which is Venus Spectrometer with high resolution (VenSpec-H). VenSpec-H performs absorption measurements in the atmosphere of Venus in four near-infrared spectral bands. VenSpec-H is developed under Belgian management and builds on heritage from instruments on Venus Express and Trace Gas Orbiter. The operating wavelength range (1.15 to 2.5 mu m) imposes stringent temperature requirements on the instrument to make nightside measurements below the Venus clouds possible. Most importantly, the spectrometer's optical components are held in a separate cold section inside the instrument, cooled down to -45 degrees C, to remove the thermal background from the signal. Some passive optical elements in the cold spectrometer had low technological readiness at the start of the project. One of them is a wavefront corrector: the freeform corrector plate, used to compensate for aberrations introduced in the system by a parabolic mirror. This device is developed by the Brussels Photonics lab of Vrije Universiteit Brussel using a supply chain with shape-adaptive corrective polishing and dedicated metrology. Another is the echelle grating, used to disperse the incoming light into its spectral components, which is built by Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems. We highlight the manufacturing and metrology processes of both devices. Besides that, some mechanisms, placed in the warmer part of the instrument, had to be developed: a turn window unit to protect the interior of the instrument during the aerobraking phase of the mission, a filter wheel mechanism to select the spectral bands of interest, and an integrated detector cooler assembly to register the spectra.
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Keywords

Adaptive opticsBragg gratingsCalibrationCritical elementsDistributed bragg reflectorsEnvisionEuropean space agencyFreeform correctorFreeformsGratinGratingHigh resolutionInfrared spectrometerInfrared spectrometersMirrorsOptical-Particle spectrometersSpace instrumentationSpace instrumentationsSuitUv imaging spectrometerVenusVirtisWavefront correctorWavefronts

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Journal of Applied Remote Sensing due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Earth and Planetary Sciences (Miscellaneous). Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q3 for the agency WoS (JCR) in the category Remote Sensing.

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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-11-12:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 2.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 2 (PlumX).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium; France; Germany; Netherlands; Switzerland.

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Awards linked to the item

The VenSpec-H development is under the responsibility of a Belgian Instrument Lead team (BIRA-IASB, Brussels). Contributions are provided by research institutes or industrial companies in Europe:
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