WISH: Wide-field imaging surveyor for high-redshift

WISH is a new space science mission concept whose primary goal is to study the first galaxies in the early universe. We will launch a 1.5m telescope equipped with 1000 arcmin² wide-field NIR camera by late 2010's in order to conduct unique ultra-deep and wide-area sky surveys at 1-5 micron. The primary science goal of WISH mission is pushing the high-redshift frontier beyond the epoch of reionization by utilizing its unique imaging capability and the dedicated survey strategy. We expect to detect ∼ 10⁴ galaxies at z=8-9, ∼ 3-6×10³ galaxies at z=11-12, and ∼50-100 galaxies at z=14-17 within about 5 years of the planned mission life time. It is worth mentioning that a large fraction of these objects may be bright enough for the spectroscopic observations with the extremely large telescopes. By adopting the optimized strategy for the recurrent observations to reach the depth, we also use the surveys to detect transient objects. Type Ia Supernova cosmology is thus another important primary goal of WISH. A unique optical layout has been developed to achieve the diffraction-limited imaging at 1-5micron over the required large area. Cooling the mirror and telescope to ∼100K is needed to achieve the zodiacal light limited imaging and WISH will achieve the required temperature by passive cooling in the stable thermal environment at the orbit near Sun-Earth L2. We are conducting the conceptual studies and development for the important components of WISH including the exchange mechanism for the wide-field filters as well as the primary mirror fixation.