Spitzer Glossary - Acronyms

The following definitions and acronyms (pdf file) have specific meanings within the contextof the Spitzer Project.

Definitions

Observatory
The Observatory is the complete flight system, including the spacecraft, the cryo-telescope assembly, and the three science instruments.

Facility
The Facility includes the Observatory and the ground segment.

Spacecraft
The Spacecraft (S/C) refers to the warm portion of the Observatory, including the solar panel, the bus structure, and the components mounted in the bus that provide the Observatory engineering functions. These components include: the solar arrays, the command and data handling unit, the reaction control subsystem, the telecommunications subsystem, the power generation and distribution subsystem, the pointing control subsystem, and the flight software.

Cryo-Telescope Assembly
The Cryo-Telescope Assembly (CTA) is the cold portion of the Observatory, including the cryostat, the telescope assembly, the outer shell group including the thermal radiation shields, the S/C support struts, and the Multiple Instrument Chamber (MIC) which houses the instrument cold assemblies.

Science Instruments
The Science Instruments (SI's) include the three payload instruments: the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). The SI's consist of cold assemblies mounted in the CTA and associated warm electronics mounted in the S/C.

Acronyms (pdf file)

The Spitzer Space Telescope is a NASA mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This website is maintained by the Spitzer Science Center, located on the campus of the California Institute of Technology and part of NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.