The GSFC Diffraction Grating Evaluation Facility - Capabilities and Application

The Optical Research Section at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing the diffraction grating evaluation facility (DGEF) to evaluate the performance of new technology diffraction gratings for future space flight instrumentation. Because grating performance is most accurately assessed with the grating in the optical configuration for which it is designed, the DGEF has been devised to evaluate gratings in an optical breadboard scheme that emulates design concepts or design options. The working volume of the DGEF was sized to accomodate proposed spectrographic designs for future missions, e.g. Lyman or the Far Ultraviolet Spectrographic Explorer (FUSE), and second generation Space Telescope Instruments such as the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).