Near-Infrared Imaging Spectroscopic Survey in Space

To probe the star formation in local and early Universe, the NISS with a capability of imaging spectroscopy in the near-infrared is being developed by KASI. The main scientific targets are nearby galaxies, galaxy clusters, star-forming regions and low background regions. The off-axis optical design of the NISS with 15cm aperture was optimized to obtain a wide field of view (FoV) of $2deg.{\times}2deg.$ as well as a wide spectral coverage from 0.9 to $3.8{\mu}m$. The opto-mechanical structure was designed to be safe enough to endure in both the launching condition and the space environment. The dewar will operate $1k{\times}1k$ infrared sensor at 80K stage. The NISS will be launched in 2017 and explore the large areal near-infrared sky up to $200deg.^2$ in order to get both spatial and spectral information for astronomical objects. As an extension of the NISS, KASI is planning to participate in a new small space mission together with NASA. The promising candidate, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is an all-sky survey satellite designed to reveal the origin of the Universe and water in the planetary systems and to explore the evolution of galaxies. Though the survey concept is similar to that of the NISS, the SPHEREx will perform the first near-infrared all-sky imaging spectroscopic survey with the wider spectral range from 0.7 to $5{\mu}m$ and the wider FoV of $3.5deg.{\times}7deg.$ Here, we report the current status of the NISS and introduce new mission for the near-infrared imaging spectroscopic survey.