Abstract. The payload of the Italian/Dutch spacecraft BeppoSAX includes a set of four X-ray concentrators each of geometric area 124 cm 2 together with imaging gas scintillation proportional counter detectors located at the focal planes. One of these detectors, the Low-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS), is sensitive to X-rays in the energy range 0.1 − 10 keV, while the other three cover a narrower energy range of 1.3 − 10 keV. In order to achieve the extended low-energy response of the LECS a novel type of gas scintillation proportional counter has been developed which dispenses with the separate drift and scintillation regions of conventional instruments. The design and performance of the instrument together with its calibration and data analysis system are described here.

Future large X-ray observatories in space will require mirrors with large effective areas and long focal lengths to accomplish the proposed science. ESA programs for developing lightweight optics based on modules of silicon pore optics (SPO) and slumped glass optics (SGO) were put in place for the IXO mission (f=20m, r≈1m). To test such optics the MPE PANTER X-ray test facility has been upgraded / extended with support from ESA to accommodate in-focus measurements of such optics modules. We describe the extension to PANTER and the first results obtained from measuring such SPO and SGO modules during commissioning.

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Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) is a new X-ray optics technology under development in Europe, forming the ESA baseline technology for the International X-ray Observatory candidate mission studied jointly by ESA, NASA, and JAXA. With its matrix-like structure, made of monocrystalline-bonded Silicon mirrors, it can achieve the required angular resolution and low mass density required for future large X-ray observatories. Glass-based Micro Pore Optics (MPO) achieve modest angular resolution compared to SPO, but are even lighter and have achieved sufficient maturity level to be accepted as the X-ray optic technology for instruments on board the Bepi-Colombo mission, due to visit the planet Mercury. Opportunities for technology transfer to ground-based applications include material science, security and scanning equipment, and medical diagnostics. Pore X-ray optics combine high performance with modularity and economic industrial production processes, ensuring cost effective implementation.

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