Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale

The Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS) is a laboratory of the CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research ) and of the Université Paris Sud. Together with GEOPS (Géosciences Paris Sud), they constitute the OSUPS (Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Paris Sud). The main research themes at the IAS are: solar physics, solar system and extrasolar planets, extraterrestrial and interstellar matter, galaxies and cosmology. The institute is heavily involved in space instrumentation and has a large Research and Development (R&D) program. The IAS is a major partner for space agencies, national (CNES), or international (ESA, NASA) and works with many industrial partners (Alcatel, Air Liquide, EADS,…) The scientific and technical teams of the IAS conceive instruments for, and exploit data from CNES, ESA and sometimes NASA space missions. Several spatial projects can be managed simultaneously by the IAS: the institute drives the conception and development of instruments, tests them and characterizes their operation. For this, the institute possesses a large technical infrastructure. The IAS manages a national facility for the calibration of spatial experiments. In a controlled cleanliness environment, it includes a set of spatial simulators for the calibration of instruments and spatial environment tests. Moreover, in collaboration with the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), the IAS is taking part in a project for a spatial simulator on the new synchrotron "SOLEIL". The data and operations centre of IAS – IDOC: Integrated Data and Operation Center – is in charge of some of the operations of the solar mission SoHO, the Mars Express planetary mission, and those of the cosmology mission Planck. The centre also ensures the analysis, the archiving and the access, for the national and international community, to the data of missions in which the IAS took part.