Planck Surveyor

USA Participation in LFI Consortium


Planck (formerly COBRAS/SAMBA) is an ESA (European Space Agency) mission. The current ESA schedule has a launch date of 2004. However there are a number of things in which US participation will add significantly to the mission. This page addresses the LFI primarily.

Anticipated & Current USA Participation in the LFI Consortium
Institution Name Responsibility
JPL C. Lawrence
M. Janssen
T. Gaier
S. Levin
M. Seifert
L. Wade
UC Berkeley George Smoot
Eric Gawiser
Andrew Jaffe
Experimental Development
Extragalactic Foregrounds
Theory & Analysis
UCSB P. Lubin
P. Meinhold
University of Illnois UC M. White
UBC D. Scott
Haverford B. Partridge
TRW B. Allen
R. Davidheiser
R. Lai
W. Streit

Sensitivity of Detectors

Both US developed bolometers and HEMTs lead the world as being the most sensitive detectors currently available for a space mission such as Planck.

InP HEMT amplifiers


Cryocooling Expertise


CMB Experiment and Space Experience


Return to the Planck page.

Return to the Smoot Group page for a complete description of Dr. Smoot's group's research activities.


Revised 21 January 1997; smoot@cosmos.lbl.gov