Next-Generation MicroShutter Array for HWO UV Multi-Object Spectrograph

Multi-object spectroscopy is a technology development priority of both the Decadal Survey: Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s and the current Cosmic Origins Program. Aperture control methods that are popular in ground-based MOS applications are not practical options for spaceflight. Microshutter array (MSA) technology solves this problem. A MSA functions as a programmable field slit mask. The array can provide any pattern of slits corresponding to sparsely distributed sources on the sky. Our first generation MSA technology enabled realization of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec). The NexGen Micro-Shutter Array (NGMSA) technology goal is to develop programmable field selector masks for the HWO Ultraviolet MOS spectrograph with the ability to take >256 spectra in sparsely populated fields and across both extended objects and point-like targets, ranging in context from cosmological targets, to regions of star formation across galaxies, to individual resolved extended objects to solar system targets. This innovation enables the actuation (opening and closing) of the shutters electronically. By eliminating the magnetic actuation aspect in the JWST MSA, resulting in a shutter array that is scalable to large formats (> 7.2’ x 7.2’ with > 1 million total shutters for 2 x 2 butted arrays) with very low mass (< 1 Kg for each quad), no external mechanical complexity, and no life-limited mechanical components. Microshutter arrays were baselined for the LUVOIR, HabEx, and CETUS Decadal Survey mission concept studies and are expected to be for HWO as well.