Professor André Monfils, creator of the CSL, passed away this Monday 2nd of March at the age of 94. We wished to pay tribute to him by republishing an article written in 2011 which presents the career of this pioneer of Liège space optics.
A text written by Théo Pirard
Fifty years ago, in the circle of Professor Pol Swings (1906-1983), André Monfils, a young teacher at the Astrophysics Institute of Liège, gathered a team of researchers and technicians around him to carry out experiments by means of optical instruments. This team, known under the name of IAL space, grew to become the CSL (Centre Spatiale de Liege) at the heart of a “spatiopole”.
Spectroscopy
André Monfils is the “father” of space optics in Liège. The association Promoptica, which he created and led, paid homage to him at the beginning of spring at the Liège space centre. The key role played by Professor Monfils was recalled by his successor at the head of IAL Space, Claude Jamar, who is the current chief executive of the company AMOS. Professor Monfils’ role enabled the University of Liège to acquire its reputation for experiments in space with optical systems.
Originally from Blankenberge, where he was born on the 25th of July 1925, André Monfils obtained a degree in Chemistry at the ULB but it was at the University of Liège that he completed his doctoral thesis in physics. This thesis, which he defended in November 1952, was the opportunity to specialise in the science of molecular spectroscopy which was taking off at the time. His work in infrared, Raman and acoustic spectroscopy and nuclear quadrupole resonance has been the subject of some thirty publications that constitute works of reference. In the mid-fifties, he was at Harvard and Ottowa for research activities under the patronage of Gerhard Herzberg, the winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1971. With him, he co-signed articles on the molecules of Hydrogen and Deuterium and knowledge relating to them represented a major step in astrophysics.
On his return to the country in 1958, André Monfils offered his services to the International Geophysics Year (1957-1958). Together with Pol Swings, he contributed to the excellence of Belgian research. It was during this period that the space age began with the launch of the first satellites in the USSR (Sputnik) and the US (Explorer). It then became possible to conduct an “in situ” study of the upper atmosphere of the Earth and observe the effects of solar radiation on its behaviour. Europe, which had a duty to be involved in this with its expertise, had difficulties in taking firm and coordinated decisions. But Belgium showed its determination to oversee the development and triumph of this European cooperation in space. From 1960, the two professors Swings and Monfils championed this cause: they participated in the setting up of a European spatial science programme by means of rocket-probes and satellites.
At the Astrophysics Institute of Liège, the experiments group for distant UV (ultraviolet light) or Optics and Space Physics department was set up under the direction of André Monfils. It was a dynamic team of young researchers who became involved in three programmes that were proposed at COPERS (European Preparatory Commission for Space Research) for its first five-year plan of activities with rocket-probes and satellites. These included:
- the study of a cloud of ammonia formed by a rocket probe in the atmosphere;
- the launch of a UV spectrograph in a polar Aurora;
- the UV mapping of the sky by satellite.
COPERS gave rise to ESRO in 1962, the European Space Research Organisation which became operational in March 1964 and was to become the basis of the ESA (European Space Agency) ten years later.
The first objective of the Space Physics and Optics Department within the scope of its capability was the UV spectroscopy of polar auroras thanks to rocket probes launched from the Esrange centre in Kiruna (Sweden). This team of pioneers of the European programme for rocket probes endured a lot of initial problems by being confronted with the hazards of the space technology of the era.
The first experiment with the R 81 spectrometer which was built and tested in Cointe took place on the 20th of November 1966 but did not produce a result because the payload fairing of the French rocket Centaure didn’t open. The following 11 flights of Centaure, between February 1967 and November 1971, made it possible to analyse the interactions between the particles of the solar wind and our atmospheric environment. This involvement of IAL Space was thanks to the support of the Belgian science policy office.
First patent of nobility
IAL Space, under the leadership of Professor Monfils, called upon Belgian industry to develop the instruments to fly on board the rockets launched from Kiruna (Sweden), Andoya (Norway) and Fort Churchill Canada. His industrial partners were SABCA for mechanics and ETCA (Thales Alenia Space) for electronics. He gained renown with the stellar UV telescope –experiment S2/S68-on board the first European astronomy satellite TD-1.
The dynamic team of IAL Space preparing a UV telescope test for the satellite TD-1. We can recognise the "tall" Claude Jamar and Marc Henrist (1943-2006) behind the instrument.
This equipment, totally new in Europe, constituted a great advance in space exploration for IAL Space, within the ULg. Its development put the researchers from Liège in contact with Matra (today the manufacturer of EADS satellites Astrium). Professor Leo Houziaux of the polytechnic faculty of Mons, where he developed the Astrophysics Department with an atomic spectroscopy laboratory, is associated with the scientific preparation and exploitation of the telescope’s observations.
In order to calibrate the instrument on the flight-a telescope of 0.27 m coupled with a spectrometer, in conditions close to those of the environment of space, the ULiège Astrophysics Institute had to equip itself with a space simulation chamber for photometric calibration tests in a vacuum. While the unit was developed by a French project manager, the chamber, with a diameter of 2 metres and 5 metres in length which housed a high-vacuum and thermal variations, was built in the workshops of la Meuse in Liège. The Liège Company, which gave rise to AMOS in 1983, thus became involved in the development of space simulators: FOCAL-2 (Facility for Optical Calibration at Liège) is still operational today within the infrastructure of the testing capabilities of CSL.
The Focal-2 simulator is still operationnal : it is used for tests in an ultra-clean atmosphere.
It would take five years, from January 1967 to 1972, for the instrument S2/S68 to become a reality. The Caroloregienne Company ETCA designed and developed its micro-electronics. The satellite weighing 473 kilos was launched on March 12 1972 by an American launcher Thor-Delta (on which the acronym TD-1 is based) from the Vandenberg military base in California. But the TD-1 experimentation team were not out of the woods yet. Two months after being placed in orbit, the two recorders on-board broke down. A rescue plan took the form of a global mobilisation of a network of stations to directly collect the data. The observatory worked, with highs and lows, until May 1974. It made possible the establishment of two catalogues of the spectra of stars in Ultra-violet which even today remain tools of reference for the study of hot stars.
Disappointing days ahead
For IAL Space and the pursuit of its activities in the service of European space study, TD-1 met with disappointing times. The oil crisis in 1973 obliged countries to reduce their spending on science and technology.
Professor Monfils had to deal with a crisis caused by a shrinking of the space budget allocated to ULg. He had to manage a serious situation with resources that were halved, going from 24 to 13 million Belgian francs at the time (from 0.6 to 0.3 million Euros). But space technology requires important funding. It opted for a close collaboration with industry, notably with Matra, not only for optical systems tests, but also for the design and development of innovative instruments. Andre Monfils, aware of this necessity, was on the alert and had to manoeuvre in a delicate situation which was made all the more so because any activity with industrial overtones was not to the taste of everyone within the university.