The high energy replicated optics to explore the sun mission: a hard x-ray balloon-borne telescope

Abstract

Set to fly in the Fall of 2013 from Ft. Sumner, NM, the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun (HEROES) mission is a collaborative effort between the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center to upgrade an existing payload, the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) balloon-borne telescope, to make unique scientific measurements of the Sun and astrophysical targets during the same flight. The HEROES science payload consists of 8 mirror modules, housing a total of 109 grazing-incidence optics. These modules are mounted on a carbon-fiber and Aluminum optical bench 6 m from a matching array of high pressure xenon gas scintillation proportional counters, which serve as the focal-plane detectors. The HEROES gondola utilizes a differential GPS system (backed by a magnetometer) for coarse pointing in the azimuth and a shaft angle encoder plus inclinometer provides the coarse elevation. The HEROES payload will incorporate a new solar aspect system to supplement the existing star camera, for fine pointing during both the day and night. The overall payload will be discussed as well as the new solar aspect system. This mission is funded by the NASA HOPE (Hands On Project Experience) Training Opportunity awarded by the NASA Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership, in partnership with NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Office of the Chief Engineer and Office of the Chief Technologist.

SuperHERO: the next generation hard x-ray HEROES telescope

“…The ability to observe the Sun dictated the addition of a Solar Aspect System (SAS) and a mechanical shutter to protect the on-axis star camera during solar observations. 20 The HEROES telescope had a successful flight from Fort Sumner, NM on September 21, 2013 ( Figure 1) on a 39 mcf zero-pressure balloon. 21 This flight lasted for just over 27 hours, which is not atypical for a Conventional Balloon (CB) Flight.…”

The Marshall 100-meter x-ray beamline

“…While not initially designed for x-ray calibration, the facility's long beamline, low operational pressure, and large Instrument Chamber makes it ideal for x-ray testing for which it is now primarily deployed. In the past it has been used in the development of sub-orbital x-ray telescope missions such as the science balloon mission High Energy Replicated Optics/ to Explore the Sun (HERO/HEROS)) 9,10 and previous iterations of the sounding rocket mission Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI). 11 The Marshall-100 has also been used for pre-flight calibration of space-based missions such as the Astronomical Röentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) (13) mission.…”

FOXSI-2: Upgrades of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager for its Second Flight

“…The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) is a sounding rocket payload part of a program to develop and apply new HXR grazingincidence focusing optics combined with solid-state pixel detectors to solar observations (also see Christe et al, 2013;Gaskin et al, 2013 for an overview of the HEROES balloon payload part of the same program). FOXSI launched from the White Sands Missile Range for the second time on 2014 December 11 at 19:11 UT and reached an apogee of 339 km.…”