A VIS-IR Camera for the Exploration of the Solar System (VICESS)

Our knowledge of planets and small bodies of our Solar System increases via four routes: the steady flow of information from telescopic observations, laboratory analysis of accessible extraterrestrial materials, computer simulations, and the occasional great leaps forward that result from spacecraft exploration. The minor bodies, comets and asteroids, hold important clues to understand the process of planet formation, and a number of missions have visited them in recent years. Telescopic surveys have discovered a number of minor bodies that cross the boundary between asteroids and comets: the so-called Main Belt Comets (MBCs) that have asteroid-like orbits but comet-like appearance and behaviour, and represent a new population that may analyze the source region of Earth’s water. They therefore represent a coherent destination for the next comet mission. \\ Through the information described, this thesis seeks to match state-of-the-art space cameras for the exploration of the solar system, and in particular MBCs, to design a new camera (VICESS) able to detect a wide range of wavelengths: from 400 to 2'500 nanometers, passing trought visible (0.4-0.7 $\mu m$) to IR-A (0.7-1.4 $\mu m$) and a part of IR-B (1.4-3.0 $\mu m$). The camera consists of a TMA configuration made up of three curved mirrors, with two optical channels separated by a dichroic filter and two different detectors, in front of which there is a filter wheel to allow the transmission of the desired wavelengths. VICESS is a system that can be adapted to various types of space missions, that need to operate in a large range of frequencies from visible to infrared and acquire images of planet's satellites, comets, asteroids with great resolution. The goal is to broaden the knowledge of celestial bodies and bring clues about the formation of our solar system, to find out where it could have been created, hence the origin of our life.