Lab-Based Calibration of the Mod-Cam Instrument for the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope*

Mod-Cam is a first-light instrument for the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST, pronounced “feast”) at the CCAT Observatory (www.ccatobservatory.org). FYST is a ground-based submillimeter telescope designed to operate at 5600 m elevation on the Cerro Chajnantor mountain in the Atacama region of Chile. FYST aims to provide insights to a variety of astrophysical and cosmological questions related to the Big Bang, first stars and galaxies, galactic evolution, the large-scale structure and composition of the universe, and the fundamental laws governing it. Mod-Cam is in development at Cornell University with target deployment in 2025. Prior to deployment, lab characterization is necessary in order to calibrate the response of the kinetic inductance detectors to a known optical signal. I designed and implemented devices to calibrate the Mod-Cam detectors in lab-based cold-load testing. I present an update on Mod-Cam’s progress as well as expound on its application in FYST’s science goals.