Lightweight and high angular resolution x-ray optics for astronomical missions

Zhang, W. W.; Biskach, Michael P.; Blake, P.; Chan, Kai-Wing; Evans, Tyler; Hong, M.; Jones, W. D.; Kolos, Linette D.; Mazzarella, James R.; McClelland, Ryan S.; O’Dell, Stephen L.; Saha, Timo T.; Sharpe, Marton

doi:10.1117/12.893697

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Our group at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center has been actively pursuing technology for making lightweight xray optics with this modular approach 11,12 with thin substrates. We have developed a full suite of capabilities to fabricate substrates, to coat x-ray reflective layer, to align and bond mirrors, to design mirror modules and their integration.…”

Section: Preserving Mirror Figures For Lightweight X-ray Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preserving accurate figures in coating and bonding mirrors for lightweight x-ray telescopes

et al. 2014

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Lightweight, high-resolution, high throughput optics for x-ray astronomy requires fabrication and integration of thin mirrors segments with arc-second precision. In this paper, we present results on our effort leading to the most recent two test modules achieving the intermediate goal of 10 arc-second resolution. We will address issues of coating and bonding thin glass mirrors with negligible distortion. Annealing of sputtered high-density metallic films was found to be sufficiently accurate. We will present result from tests of bonding mirrors onto experimental strongbacks, as well as the sensitivity on bonding procedure, bond parameters and environment.

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Section: Preserving Mirror Figures For Lightweight X-ray Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preserving accurate figures in coating and bonding mirrors for lightweight x-ray telescopes

et al. 2014

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“…Over the last decade we have developed and perfected the slumping process [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,24] and successfully made thousands of 0.2 mm thick substrates [11] for the NuSTAR mission which was launched in June 2012 and has been in successful operation since. To date, we have been able to consistently make substrates with a figure quality between 4 and 8 arc-seconds HPD (two reflection equivalent), with the most probable (or average) value of 6 arc-seconds HPD.…”

Section: Substrate Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affordable and lightweight high-resolution x-ray optics for astronomical missions

et al. 2014

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Future x-ray astronomical missions require x-ray mirror assemblies that provide both high angular resolution and large photon collecting area. In addition, as x-ray astronomy undertakes more sensitive sky surveys, a large field of view is becoming increasingly important as well. Since implementation of these requirements must be carried out in broad political and economical contexts, any technology that meets these performance requirements must also be financially affordable and can be implemented on a reasonable schedule. In this paper we report on progress of an x-ray optics development program that has been designed to address all of these requirements. The program adopts the segmented optical design, thereby is capable of making both small and large mirror assemblies for missions of any size. This program has five technical elements: (1) fabrication of mirror substrates, (2) coating, (3) alignment, (4) bonding, and (5) mirror module systems engineering and testing. In the past year we have made progress in each of these five areas, advancing the angular resolution of mirror modules from 10.8 arc-seconds half-power diameter reported (HPD) a year ago to 8.3 arc-seconds now. These mirror modules have been subjected to and passed all environmental tests, including vibration, acoustic, and thermal vacuum. As such this technology is ready for implementing a mission that requires a 10-arc-second mirror assembly. Further development in the next two years would make it ready for a mission requiring a 5-arc-second mirror assembly. We expect that, by the end of this decade, this technology would enable the x-ray astrophysical community to compete effectively for a major xray mission in the 2020s that would require one or more 1-arc-second mirror assemblies for imaging, spectroscopic, timing, and survey studies.

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“…We have developed and perfected a glass slumping process [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], as shown in Figure 2. It copies the figure of conventionally fabricated mandrels to cOlllIJlercially procured (Schott D263) thin (-0.4 mm) float glass sheets while preserving their excellent micro-roughness (-4A rms measured over a 300 /lm span).…”

Section: Technical Approaches and Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Next generation astronomical x-ray optics: high angular resolution, light weight, and low production cost

et al. 2012

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X-ray astronomy depends on the availability of telescopes with high resolution and large photon collecting areas. Since x-ray observation can only be carried out above the atmosphere, these telescopes must be necessarily lightweight. Compounding the lightweight requirement is that an x-ray telescope consists of many nested concentric shells, which further require that x-ray mirrors must also be geometrically thin to achieve high packing efficiency. This double lightweight and geometrically thin requirement poses significant technical challenges in fabricating the mirrors and in integrating them into mirror assemblies. This paper reports on the approach, strategy and status of our x-ray optics development program whose objective is to meet these technical challenges at modest cost to enable future x -ray missions, including small Explorer missions in the near term, probe class missions in the medium term, and large flagship missions in the long term.

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Lightweight and high angular resolution x-ray optics for astronomical missions

Cited by 13 publications

References 14 publications

Preserving accurate figures in coating and bonding mirrors for lightweight x-ray telescopes

Preserving accurate figures in coating and bonding mirrors for lightweight x-ray telescopes

Affordable and lightweight high-resolution x-ray optics for astronomical missions

Next generation astronomical x-ray optics: high angular resolution, light weight, and low production cost

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