CANCELED: FIREBall-2 2023: detector system upgrade and performance

The Faint Intergalactic Medium Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall-2) is a UV multi-object spectrograph exploring the CGM of galaxies at low redshifts (0.3 < z < 1.0). The science detector is a large-format 2k x 1k electron multiplying (EM) CCD, optimized for FIREBall-2’s bandpass in the UV. The technology involved in UV photon-counting CCDs is slated for use on next-generation Great Observatories, like Habitable Worlds Observatory and the Roman Space Telescope. FIREBall-2 plays a critical role in increasing the TRL of these next-generation UV detectors; this will provide feedback for future proposals that require space-qualified detectors. We will present an overview of the FIREBall-2 detector system, discuss the motivations for the upgrades since the 2018 campaign, the progress made on implementing them, and the ground performance including read noise, conversion gain, dark current, CIC, CTE, and EM gain of the final system for the FIREBall-2 launch in September 2023 in Fort Sumner, NM.