X-ray testing Constellation-X optics at MSFC's 100-m facility

Stephen L. O'Dell; Markus A. Baker; James M. Carter; David A. Content; William N. Davis; Mark D. Freeman; Paul E. Glenn; Mikhail V. Gubarev; Jason H. Hair; Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak; William D. Jones; Marshall K. Joy; Jeff E. McCracken; Giriraj Nanan; Scott M. Owens; Robert Petre; William A. Podgorski; Brian D. Ramsey; Timo T. Saha; Jeffrey W. Stewart; Doug A. Swartz; William W. Zhang; Galen X. Zirnstein

doi:10.1117/12.509584

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29 January 2004 X-ray testing Constellation-X optics at MSFC's 100-m facility

Stephen L. O'Dell, Markus A. Baker, James M. Carter, David A. Content, William N. Davis, Mark D. Freeman, Paul E. Glenn, Mikhail V. Gubarev, Jason H. Hair, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, William D. Jones, Marshall K. Joy, Jeff E. McCracken, Giriraj Nanan, Scott M. Owens, Robert Petre, William A. Podgorski, Brian D. Ramsey, Timo T. Saha, Jeffrey W. Stewart, Doug A. Swartz, William W. Zhang, Galen X. Zirnstein

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5168, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.509584
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

As NASA’s next facility-class x-ray mission, Constellation X will provide high-throughput, high-resolution spectroscopy for addressing fundamental astrophysical and cosmological questions. Key to the Constellation-X mission is the development of lightweight grazing-incidence optics for its Spectroscopy X-ray Telescopes (SXT) and for its Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXT). In preparation for x-ray testing Constellation-X SXT and HXT development and demonstration optics, Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is upgrading its 100-m x-ray test facility, including development of a five degree-of-freedom (5-DoF) mount for translating and tilting test articles within the facility’s large vacuum chamber. To support development of alignment and assembly procedures for lightweight x-ray optics, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has prepared the Optical Alignment Pathfinder Two (OAP2), which will serve as a surrogate optic for developing and rehearsing x-ray test procedures. In order to minimize thermal distortion of the mirrors during x-ray testing, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has designed and implemented a thermal control and monitoring system for the OAP2. CfA has also built an aperture wheel for masking and sub-aperture sampling of the OAP2 to aid in characterizing x-ray performance of test optics.

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Stephen L. O'Dell, Markus A. Baker, James M. Carter, David A. Content, William N. Davis, Mark D. Freeman, Paul E. Glenn, Mikhail V. Gubarev, Jason H. Hair, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, William D. Jones, Marshall K. Joy, Jeff E. McCracken, Giriraj Nanan, Scott M. Owens, Robert Petre, William A. Podgorski, Brian D. Ramsey, Timo T. Saha, Jeffrey W. Stewart, Doug A. Swartz, William W. Zhang, and Galen X. Zirnstein "X-ray testing Constellation-X optics at MSFC's 100-m facility", Proc. SPIE 5168, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy, (29 January 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.509584

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