Mirror technology development for the International X-ray Observatory mission

Zhang, W. W.; Atanassova, Martina; Biskach, Michael P.; Blake, P.; Byron, Glenn; Chan, Kai-Wing; Evans, Tyler; Fleetwood, Charles M.; Hill, Michael D; Hong, M.; Jalota, Lalit; Kolos, Linette D.; Mazzarella, James R.; McClelland, Ryan S.; Olsen, L.; Petre, Robert; Robinson, David; Saha, Timo T.; Sharpe, Marton; Gubarev, Mikhail V.; Jones, W. D.; Kester, Thomas; O’Dell, Stephen L.; Caldwell, D.; Davis, William J.; Freeman, Mark D.; Podgorski, William; Reid, Paul B.; Romaine, Suzanne

doi:10.1117/12.830226

Cited by 26 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The mirror technology assumed for the module designs presented in this paper, currently in development at NASA GSFC, consists for 0.4 mm thick glass sheets slumped over polished convex mandrels [4]. The mirror segments thus formed are cut to size (200 mm axial length and variable azimuthal span), coated with a thin layer of iridium, and temporarily mounted to a structure allowing for rigid body manipulation.…”

Section: Slumped Glass Mirror Technology Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and analysis of mirror modules for IXO and future X-ray telescopes

McClelland

Powell

Zhang

2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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Advancements in X-ray astronomy demand thin, light, and closely packed thin optics which lend themselves to segmentation of the annular mirrors and, in turn, a modular approach to the mirror design. The functionality requirements of such a mirror module are well understood. A baseline modular concept for the proposed International X-Ray Observatory (IXO) Flight Mirror Assembly (FMA) consisting of 14,000 glass mirror segments divided into 60 modules was developed and extensively analyzed.Through this development, our understanding of module loads, mirror stress, thermal performance, and gravity distortion have greatly progressed. The latest progress in each of these areas is discussed herein. Gravity distortion during horizontal X-ray testing and on-orbit thermal performance have proved especially difficult design challenges.In light of these challenges, fundamental trades in modular X-ray mirror design have been performed. Future directions in module Xray mirror design are explored including the development of a 1.8 m diameter FMA utilizing smaller mirror modules. The effect of module size on mirror stress, module self-weight distortion, thermal control, and range of segment sizes required is explored with advantages demonstrated from smaller module size in most cases.

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Section: Slumped Glass Mirror Technology Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and analysis of mirror modules for IXO and future X-ray telescopes

McClelland

Powell

Zhang

2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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“…Grating coverage was matched to the FMA module sizes of the segmented slumped glass optic approach by Zhang. 28 However, the effective grating area could easily be increased by extending grating coverage towards inner mirror shells with minimal increase in mass. Area could also be increased in the azimuthal direction, since there is some margin before sub-aperturing fails to boost resolution by a factor of ∼ 1.5 − 2.…”

Section: Discussion Summary and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a critical-angle transmission grating spectrometer for the International X-Ray Observatory

et al. 2009

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We present a high-resolution soft x-ray grating spectrometer concept for the International X-Ray Observatory (IXO) that meets or exceeds the minimum requirements for effective area (> 1, 000 cm 2 for E < 1 keV) and spectral resolution (E/ΔE > 3, 000). At the heart of the spectrometer is an array of recently developed highefficiency blazed transmission gratings, the so-called critical-angle transmission (CAT) gratings. They combine the advantages of traditional transmission gratings (very low mass, extremely relaxed alignment and flatness tolerances) with those of x-ray reflection gratings (high efficiency due to blazing in the direction of grazing-incidence reflection). In addition, a CAT grating spectrometer is well-suited for co-existence with energy-dispersive highenergy focal plane detectors, since most high-energy x rays are neither absorbed, nor diffracted, and contribute to the effective area at the telescope focus. Since our initial successful x-ray demonstrations of the CAT grating concept with large-period and lower aspect-ratio prototypes, we have now microfabricated 200 nm-period silicon CAT gratings comprised of grating bars with the required dimensions (6 micron tall, 40 nm wide, aspect ratio 150), optimized for the 0.3 to 1.0 keV energy band. Preliminary analysis of recent x-ray tests show blazing behavior up to 1.28 keV in accordance with predictions.

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“…The current conceptual design [2,9] divides the assembly into three concentric rings: inner, middle, and outer. The inner ring is further divided into 12 identical modules, each of which covers 30 degrees in azimuth.…”

Section: Conceptual Design Of the Flight Mirror Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%