This document provides a discussion of the basic calibration needs and calibration time consumption for the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on JWST. The current version assumes that slits for multi object spectroscopy will be formed via a microelectromechanical system and that NIRSpec will carry internal continuum and line lamps.

Radial velocity surveys for extra-solar planets generally require substantial amounts of large telescope time in order to monitor a sufficient number of stars. Two of the aspects which can limit such surveys are the single-object capabilities of the spectrograph, and an inefficient observing strategy for a given observing window. In addition, the detection rate of extra-solar planets using the ...

The SIRTF InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) is faced with many of the same calibration challenges that were experienced in the ISO SWS calibration program, owing to similar wavelength coverage and overlapping spectral resolutions of the two instruments. Although the IRS is up to ∼300 times more sensitive and without moving parts, imposing unique calibration challenges on their own, an overlap in phot...