Future satellite experiments

5.9 Future satellite experiments

Two new satellite experiments to study the CMB have recently been selected as future missions. These are MAP, or Microwave Anisotropy Probe, which has been selected by NASA as a Midex mission, for launch in August 2000, and the Planck Surveyor, which has been selected by ESA as an M3 mission, and will be launched hopefully soon after 2005. An artist’s impression of the MAP satellite, which has five frequency channels from 30 GHz to 100 GHz, is shown in Figure 17

Figure 17: Artist’s impression of the MAP Satellite.

An artist’s impression of the Planck Surveyor satellite, which combines both HEMT and bolometer technology in 10 frequency channels covering the range 30 GHz to 850 GHz, is shown in Figure 18 .

Figure 18: Artist’s impression of the Planck Surveyor Satellite (formally COBRAS/SAMBA)

A crucial feature of a satellite experiment is the potential all-sky coverage that it affords, and the ability to map features on large angular scales ( $>$ 10°).

Figure 19: Expected capability of a satellite experiment as a function of resolution. The percentage error in recovering cosmological parameters from the CMB power spectrum is shown versus the resolution available. This figure is taken from Bersanelli et al. 1996 [10