ASTRO-F is the second Japanese space mission for infrared astronomy and is scheduled to be launched into a sun-synchronous polar orbit by the Japanese M-V rocket in February 2004. ASTRO-F has a cooled 67 cm telescope with two focal plane instruments: one is the Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS) and the other is the Infrared Camera (IRC).
The main purpose of FIS is to perform the all-sky survey with
4 photometric bands in the wavelength range
of 50 - 200 m. The advantages
of the FIS survey over the IRAS survey are (1) higher
spatial resolution (30'' at 50-110 
m and 50'' at 110-200 m)
and (2) better sensitivity by one to two orders of magnitude.
The FIS survey will provide
the next generation far-infrared survey catalogs, which will be
ideal inputs for observations by FIRST.
The other instrument, IRC,
will make deep imaging and low-resolution spectroscopic
observations in the spectral range of
m.
The IRC will make large-area surveys
with its wide field of view (
), and
will be complementary with the
FIRST observations at longer wavelengths.
Galaxies: formation - Stars: formation - Planets: formation - Missions: ASTRO-F
