

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 (
).
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 [37
].


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The Cosmic Microwave Background
Aled W. Jones and Anthony N. Lasenby
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-1998-11
© Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1433-8351
Problems/Comments to
livrev@aei-potsdam.mpg.de
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