Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer

NICMOS contains three near-infrared detectors in three optical channels providing high (~ 0.1 arcsecond) resolution, coronagraphic and polarimetric imaging, and slitless spectroscopy in 11-, 19-, and 52-arcsecond square fields of view.

Each optical channel contains a 256×256 pixel photodiode array of mercury cadmium telluride infrared detectors bonded to a sapphire substrate, read out in four independent 128×128 quadrants.

[4]Despite this, the combination of Hubble's mirror and NICMOS offered never-before seen levels of quality in near-infrared performance at that time.

NICMOS was installed on Hubble during its second servicing mission in 1997 (STS-82) along with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, replacing two earlier instruments.

NICMOS contains a cryogenic dewar, that cooled its detectors to about 61 K, and optical filters to ~ 105 K, with a block of solid nitrogen ice.

Due to a thermal short that arose on March 4, 1997, during the instrument commissioning, the dewar ran out of nitrogen coolant sooner than expected in January 1999.

The NICMOS Cooling System (NCS) was developed on a very accelerated schedule (14 months vs. 5–10 years for other Hubble instrument hardware).

After waiting more than six weeks for parts of the instrument to warm up, and theorized ice particles to sublimate from the neon circulating loop, the cooler once again failed to restart.

Continued operation at reduced flow rates would limit NICMOS science so plans for purging and refilling the circulation system with clean neon gas were developed by NASA.

[needs update] NICMOS is also the name of the device's 256×256-pixel imaging sensor built by Rockwell International Electro-Optical Center (now DRS Technologies).