The mirror assembly of the ESA New -Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (New-ATHENA) will be the largest X-ray optics ever built. Indeed, its unprecedented size, mass and focal length create great difficulties for the ground calibration. The VERT-X project aims at developing an innovative calibration facility which will be able to accomplish to this extremely challenging task. The design is based on a 2.5 cm 2 parallel beam produced by an X-ray source positioned in the focus of a highly performing collimator. In order to cover the whole mirror, the beam will be accurately moved by a raster-scan with the capability to tilt up to 3 degrees in order to test the off-axis performance and the out of field stray-light. The whole system is enclosed in a cylindrical vacuum chamber about 20m high and with a diameter ranging from 7 to 4m. By design, VERT-X will be able to measure the New-ATHENA mirror half energy width (HEW) with a precision of 0.1", all over the field of view, with the source size, the collimator error and the raster scan tracking accuracy being the most important terms of the error budget. The VERT-X project, started in 2018, is financed by ESA and conducted by a consortium that includes INAF together with EIE, Media Lario, BCV Progetti and Apogeo Space. This paper presents the current state of the development and manufacturing of the most critical systems of the facility, namely the raster-scan mechanism and the source-collimator vertical assembly.

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ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics) is the next high-energy astrophysical mission of the European Space Agency currently planned to be launched in the early 2030s, as part of its Cosmic Vision program, on the scientific topic of "Hot and Energetic Universe". The optics technology is based on the Silicon Pore Optics (SPO). About 678 SPO mirror modules will have to be integrated and co-aligned onto the optical bench of the Mirror Assembly Module (MAM) of ATHENA. This activity will have to be completed in about two years. Media Lario leads an industrial and scientific team that has developed the process to align and integrate the SPO Mirror module with an accuracy better than 1 arcsec. The process is based on position of the centroid of the point spread function produced by each mirror module when illuminated by a collimated planewave at 218 nm taken at 12 m focal length. Experimental tests, using two SPO mirror modules, and correlation with X-ray measurement at the PANTER test facility in Münich have demonstrated that this process meets the accuracy requirement. It was also demonstrated, that a mirror module can be removed again from the MAM, and re-installed, without compromising the adjacent mirror modules. This technique allows arbitrary integration sequence and integration of two Mirror Modules per day. Moreover, it enables monitoring the telescope point spread function during the whole integration phase.

The ESA Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (ATHENA) will be the largest X-ray optics ever built. The ground calibration of its mirror assembly raises significant difficulties due to its unprecedented size, mass and focal length. The VERT-X project aims at developing an innovative calibration system which will be able to accomplish this extremely challenging task. The design is based on a 2.5 cm 2 parallel beam produced by an X-ray source positioned in the focus of a highly performing collimator; in order to cover the whole 2.5m diameter mirror, the beam is accurately moved by a raster-scan mechanism. The same device has the capability to tilt the beam by 3 degrees, in order to test both the off-axis performance and the out-of-field stray-light contamination. By design, VERT-X will be able to measure the ATHENA mirror half energy width (HEW) with a precision of 0.1", all over the field of view, with the source size, the collimator error and the raster scan tracking accuracy being the most important terms of the error budget. With respect to the traditional long-tubes, the VERT-X facility is much more compact. The entire system will be enclosed in a cylindrical 18m-high vacuum chamber with diameter ranging from 7m as maximum to 4m at minimum. Besides the smaller amount of involved resources, there are important benefits generated by the small scale design. First, it allows a vertical geometry which largely simplifies the mirror support and reduces to zero the PSF degradation due to the lateral gravity. Then, the location of the facility can be chosen flexibly and according to the project needs. Indeed, VERT-X will be built in continuity to the ATHENA mirror assembly integration facility, simplifying the verification and testing procedures. The VERT-X project, started in January 2018, is financed by ESA and conducted by a consortium that includes INAF, EIE, Media Lario, Apogeo Space (former GPAP), and BCV Progetti.