S-Cam: A Technology Demonstrator for the Astronomy of the Future

N. Rando et al.

S-Cam is a cryogenic camera developed within the Astrophysics Division of ESA Space Science Department. The camera has been designed as a technology demonstrator, aiming to prove the potential of a new generation of single-photon counting detectors based on Superconducting Tunnel Junctions (STJs). This article provides an overview of the cryogenic detector development, a description of the S-Cam system and a summary of the results obtained both during testing at ESTEC and during actual observations at the William Herschel Telescope in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). Initial observations were performed on the Crab pulsar, a neutron star about 10 km in diameter and about 6000 light years from Earth, with a weight equal to that of our Sun and spinning with a period of 33 msec.