Flight camera package design, calibration, and performance for the Water Recovery X-ray Rocket mission

Mitchell Wages; Samuel V. Hull; Abraham D. Falcone; Tyler B. Anderson; Maria McQuaide; Evan Bray; Tanmoy Chattopadhyay; David N. Burrows; Lazar Buntic; Randall L. McEntaffer; Drew M. Miles; James H. Tutt; Ted B. Schultz; Benjamin D. Donovan; Christopher R. Hillman; Daniel Yastishock

doi:10.1117/12.2529361

9 September 2019 Flight camera package design, calibration, and performance for the Water Recovery X-ray Rocket mission

Mitchell Wages, Samuel V. Hull, Abraham D. Falcone, Tyler B. Anderson, Maria McQuaide, Evan Bray, Tanmoy Chattopadhyay, David N. Burrows, Lazar Buntic, Randall L. McEntaffer, Drew M. Miles, James H. Tutt, Ted B. Schultz, Benjamin D. Donovan, Christopher R. Hillman, Daniel Yastishock

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11118, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXI; 111180D (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529361
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2019, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Water Recovery X-ray Rocket (WRXR) mission was a sounding rocket flight that targeted the northern part of the Vela supernova remnant with a camera designed to image the diffracted X-rays using a grating spectrometer optimized for OVII, OVIII, and CVI emissions. The readout camera for WRXR utilized a silicon hybrid CMOS detector (HCD) with an active area of 36.9  36.9 mm. A modified H2RG X-ray HCD, with 1024  1024 active silicon pixels bonded to the H2RG read-out integrated circuit, was selected for this mission based on its characteristics, technology maturation, and ease of implementation into the existing payload. This required a new camera package for the HCD to be designed, built, calibrated, and operated. This detector and camera system were successfully operated in-flight and its characteristics were demonstrated using the on-board calibration X-ray source. In this paper, a detailed description of this process, from design concept to flight performance, will be given. A full integrated instrument calibration will also be discussed, as well as the temperature dependency measurements of gain variation, read noise, and energy resolution for the HCD.

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Mitchell Wages, Samuel V. Hull, Abraham D. Falcone, Tyler B. Anderson, Maria McQuaide, Evan Bray, Tanmoy Chattopadhyay, David N. Burrows, Lazar Buntic, Randall L. McEntaffer, Drew M. Miles, James H. Tutt, Ted B. Schultz, Benjamin D. Donovan, Christopher R. Hillman, and Daniel Yastishock "Flight camera package design, calibration, and performance for the Water Recovery X-ray Rocket mission", Proc. SPIE 11118, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXI, 111180D (9 September 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529361

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