VIRTIS-H: a high-spectral-resolution channel for the Rosetta infrared imaging spectrometer

VIRTIS, the infrared imaging spectrometer of the ESA/ROSETTA mission, to be launched in January 2003, is devoted to the in-orbit remote sensing study of comet P/46 Wirtanen. Within the infrared imaging spectrometer VIRTIS, the high spectral resolution channel, VIRTIS-H, has for main scientific objectives to study the fine spectral details of the coma and cometary nucleus, with their composition and physical parameters, in parallel with the imaging spectrometer channel VIRTIS-M. The instrument is a cross-dispersor spectrometer, working in the range 2 - 5 micrometers , at about approximately 1200 spectral resolving power. Its design consists of a telescope, an entrance slit, followed by a collimator, and a prism separating 8 orders of a grating