SPICE

SPICE (for Space Interferometer for Cosmic Evolution) is a plan for a future NASA far infrared space interferometer. The plan has two 1-meter telescopes on booms, providing a 36-meter baseline, offing up to 0.3-arcsecond angular resolution. Its wavelength range is 25 μm to 400 μm. The SPICE is essentially a new name for a plan called SPIRIT (for Space Infrared Interferomic Telescope), which was proposed in the 1999-2010 time-frame, an alternative to a more-ambitious plan, SPECS (for Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure), which would use three tethered spacecraft telescopes for up to a 1-km baseline.

Note that the names SPICE I and SPICE 2 (for Survey Probe Infrared Celestial Experiment) were used for 1970s/1980s infrared sounding-rocket missions. Also, the name SPIRIT 1, SPIRIT II, and SPIRIT III (for Spectral Infrared Interferometric Telescope) were 1980s/1990s infrared missions, the latter a satellite mission. The term "interferometric" was used because it incorporated a spectrometer incorporating an interferometer (a Fabry-Pérot interferometer or similar). In addition to astronomical research, some of these included study of Earth atmosphere.