THE PROJECT SPICE - SPECTRO-PHOTOMETRIC INFRARED CELESTIAL EXPLORER

Proposed to both the French and the European Space Agency as one possi ble small mission, SPICE is a project for a dedicated small satellite for a near-IR spectroscopic all-sky survey. The instrument would cover the spectral range 1.8 - 3.6 mum, possibly extended to 1.8 - 7 mum, a t a resolution of almost-equal-to 100, with pixels of 1 arc-min. The e xcellent sensitivity (0.02 MJy sr-1) results from: i) the quasi-zero l evel of background due to the efficient passive cooling of the whole e xperiment; ii) the use of large format arrays; iii) the non-stop obser ving mode (drift-scanning). The spectral domain, complementing the one of ISO, partially opaque from the ground, is specially rich in spectr al features tracing stars and all components of the Interstellar Mediu m (molecular, atomic and ionized gas, dust). With a cooling below 80 K of the focal instrument, then it becomes possible to consider doublin g the spectral domain and to cover the whole 1.8 - 7 mum range.