MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 89 The INSIST proposal was recommended by ISRO for pre-project phase with seed funding in March 2019. Two years of the pre-project phase resulted in a detailed science document with necessary simulations, design documents and initial tests of some critical components. The project is expected tomove to the next phase soon. 5.6.3 Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging Survey The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics of TIFR has proposed a small satellite payload, Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging Survey (IRSIS) for Near Infrared (NIR) observations. The scientific aim of IRSIS is to spectroscopically image a good fraction of the sky, which continues to remain unexplored till date in the mid-IR wavelengths (1.7-6.4micron). This payload would be a fibre bundle based Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectrograph with seamless coverage of the interesting waveband deploying two similar channels for NIR bands of 1.7 to 3.4 micron wavelength and 3.2 to 6.4micronwavelength. 5.6.4 Daksha - anAll SkyX-ray Payload This is a proposed broadband, all-sky, high-energy transients mission, with the primary objectives of studying the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events and classical gamma-ray bursts. To achieve these goals, Daksha will use two low-Earth orbit satellites with three types of detectors each. Daksha will have an all-sky coverage, broadband spectral response from1 keV to > 1MeV, and will be an order of magnitude more sensitive than the existing missions. All current missions together have, so far, discovered only one electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational wave sources. In contrast, Daksha is expected to detect dozens of such events. Daksha will also have high sensitivity for hardX-ray polarisation, yielding unmatched insights into the central engines of gamma-ray bursts. Daksha has been recommended as one of the leading space astronomy missions to be taken up for further study for realisation in a few years' time. Seed funding has been provided by the ISRO Space Science Programme Office for developing a laboratorymodel. 5.6.5 X-ray Polarisation X-ray polarisation is a vastly unexplored area of X-ray astronomy. Amedium energy X-ray polarisation mission, the XPoSat, developed by RRI in collaboration with ISRO centres has recently been launched. The second such mission globally, XPoSat will study X-ray polarisation in selected cosmic sources. A follow-up, comprehensive broad band polarimetrymission is planned by the U. R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) and PRL. 5.6.6 RadioAstronomy in Space-basedMissions The international radio astronomy community is working on space VLBI missions, as well as observations from the far side of the Moon, particularly in the low radio frequency regions. The lunar farside provides an ideal location for sensitive measurements, as it is expected to be devoid of terrestrial radio frequency interference (RFI). The lunar farside is especially attractive for experiments seeking to detect the weak cosmological signals from the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization (CD and EoR), when the first sources formed and subsequently ionised the baryonic MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035