  Shull et al. (1999) have asserted that the contribution of stars, relative to
quasars, to the metagalactic background radiation that ionizes most of the
baryons in the universe remains almost completely unknown at all epochs. The
potential to directly quantify this contribution at low redshift has recently
become possible with the identification by GALEX of large numbers of sparsely
distributed faint ultraviolet galaxies. Neither STIS nor FUSE nor GALEX have
the ability to efficiently survey these sparse fields and directly measure the
Lyman continuum radiation that may leak into the low redshift (z < 0.4)
intergalactic medium. We present here a design for a new type of far
ultraviolet spectrograph, one that is more sensitive, covers wider fields, and
can provide spectra and images of a large number of objects simultaneously,
called the Far-ultraviolet Off Rowland-circle Telescope for Imaging and
Spectroscopy (FORTIS). We intend to use a sounding rocket flight to validate
the new instrument with a simple long-slit observation of the starburst
populations in the galaxy M83. If however, the long-slit were replaced with
microshutter array, this design could isolate the chains of blue galaxies found
by GALEX over an ~30' diameter field-of-view and directly address the Lyman
continuum problem in a long duration orbital mission. Thus, our development of
the sounding rocket instrument is a pathfinder to a new wide field
spectroscopic technology for enabling the potential discovery of the long
hypothesized but elusive Lyman continuum radiation that is thought to leak from
low redshift galaxies and contribute to the ionization of the universe.
