Understand
This paper presents the specification, design, and development of the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) on the European Space Agency's Gaia mission.
- Starting with the rationale for the full six dimensions of phase space in the dynamical modelling of the Galaxy, the scientific goals and derived top-level instrument requirements are discussed, leading to a brief description of the initial concepts for the instrument.
- The main part of the paper is a description of the flight RVS, considering the optical design, the focal plane, the detection and acquisition chain, and the as-built performance drivers and critical technical areas.
- After presenting the pre-launch performance predictions, the paper concludes with the post-launch developments and mitigation strategies, together with a summary of the in-flight performance at the end of commissioning.