Progress on the active alignment system for the IXO mirrors

Mark D. Freeman; Paul B. Reid; William Podgorski; David Caldwell

doi:10.1117/12.830841

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31 August 2009 Progress on the active alignment system for the IXO mirrors

Mark D. Freeman, Paul B. Reid, William Podgorski, David Caldwell

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Proceedings Volume 7437, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy IV; 74371E (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.830841
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2009, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The next large x-ray astrophysics mission launched will likely include soft x-ray spectroscopy as a primary capability. A requirement to fulfill the science goals of such a mission is a large-area x-ray telescope focusing sufficient x-ray flux to perform high-resolution spectroscopy with reasonable observing times. The IXO soft x-ray telescope effort in the US is focused on a tightly nested, thin glass, segmented mirror design. Fabrication of the glass segments with the required surface accuracy is a fundamental challenge; equally challenging will be the alignment of the ~7000 secondary mirror segments with their corresponding primary mirrors, and co-alignment of the mirror pairs. We have developed a system to perform this alignment using a combination of a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and a double-pass Hartmann test alignment system. We discuss the technique, its ability to correct low-order mirror errors, and results of a recent pair alignment including progress toward the required alignment accuracy of < 2 arcseconds. We then look forward toward its scalability to the task of building the IXO telescope.

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Mark D. Freeman, Paul B. Reid, William Podgorski, and David Caldwell "Progress on the active alignment system for the IXO mirrors", Proc. SPIE 7437, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy IV, 74371E (31 August 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.830841

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