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This paper presents the results of calibration campaigns to infer the performances of the MXT instrument over the lifetime of the SVOM mission.
We present in this paper the status of the optics production and illustrate not only recent X-ray results but also the progress made on the environmental testing, manufacturing and assembly aspects of SPO based optics.
The Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) enables the NewAthena mission, delivering an unprecedented combination of good angular resolution, large effective area and low mass. The SPO technology builds significantly on spin-in from the semiconductor industry and is designed to allow a cost-effective flight optics implementation, compliant with the programmatic requirements of the mission.
The NewAthena X-ray optics is highly modular, consisting of hundreds of compact mirror modules arranged in concentric circles and mounted on a metallic optical bench. All aspects of the optics are being developed in parallel, from the industrial production of the mirror plates, over the highly efficient assembly into mirror modules, to the alignment of the mirror modules and their fixation on the optical bench. Dedicated facilities are being built to measure the performance of the NewAthena X-ray telescope optics, demonstrating their compatibility with the environmental and scientific requirements.
An overview is provided of the activities preparing the implementation of the NewATHENA optics.
The facility is compact (just 8 m x 14 m). Thanks to an innovative optical design based on an asymmetrical-cut crystal associated with a paraboloidal grazing incidence mirror, it can produce an expanded X-ray beam (170 mm x 60 mm) with low divergence (about 2 arcsec measured for the 4.51 keV beamline) at the two monochromatic energies of 4.51 keV and 1.49 keV. This allows us to calibrate each SPO MM's Effective Area and Point Spread Function precisely.
The first beamline, at 4.51 keV photon energy, is already operational, as the commissioning was completed in Q1-2023. The second beamline, at 1.49 keV energy, is being developed. It presents some more challenging aspects from both the design and implementation points of view. The monochromator stage is based on two Quartz (100); two ADP asymmetric-cut crystals (101) will provide the horizontal expansion of the beam. The X-ray source needs to be very brilliant (5 x 1011 - 1012 ph/s/sterad) due to the large fraction of photons rejected by the crystals.
This paper describes the ongoing activities. It will present the results of the 4.51 keV X-ray beamline optimization and the tests performed on a coated MM. It will also describe the progress in implementing the 1.49 keV components and discuss the comparison with other X-ray testing facilities.
The next generation x-ray observatory ATHENA (advanced telescope for high energy astrophysics) requires an optics with unprecedented performance. It is the combination of low mass, large effective area and good angular resolution that is the challenge of the x-ray optics of such a mission. ATHENA is the second large class mission in the science programme of ESA, and is currently in a reformulation process, following a design-to-cost approach to meet the cost limit of an ESA L-class mission.
The silicon pore optics (SPO) is the mission enabler being specifically developed for ATHENA, in a joint effort by industry, research institutions and ESA. All aspects of the optics are being addressed, from the mirror plates and their coatings, over the mirror modules and their assembly into the ATHENA telescope, to the facilities required to build and test the flight optics, demonstrating performance, robustness, and programmatic compliance.
The SPO technology is currently being matured to the level required for the adoption of the ATHENA mission, i.e., the start of the mission implementation phase. The monocrystalline silicon material and pore structure of the SPO provide these optics with excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Benefiting from technology spin-in from the semiconductor industry, the equipment, processes, and materials used to produce the SPO are highly sophisticated and optimised.
The preparations are ongoing at PANTER, ESA, cosine and Media Lario to perform complex opto-thermo-mechanical tests of the two full scale 1/6th sectors of the final ATHENA mirror assembly structure produced by the potential ATHENA primes Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space. For these tests a set of three SPO MMs have been produced following the flight configuration. The MMs will be incorporated into the full scale 1/6th sectors to measure the impact of thermal gradients on the thermoelastic deformation of the structure and therefore the HEW performance. A description of the tests is presented here.
PANTER is also involved in the development, testing, and fabrication of the mirror adapter structure (MAS) to support the 2.6-m diameter ATHENA mirror assembly module demonstrators (MAMD) during the planned x-ray tests at XRCF. A description of the PANTER tests and results will be presented in this paper together with a short overview of the MAS MGSE for XRCF.
The Einstein Probe (EP) is a mission of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) dedicated to time-domain high-energy astrophysics. Its primary goals are to discover high-energy transients and monitor variable objects. The ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) approved on 19 June 2018 the participation of ESA to the CAS EP mission as a mission of opportunity. Among other elements, CAS has requested ESA participation for the provision of the mirror modules of the follow-up x-ray telescope (FXT).
FXT is a pair of Wolter-I telescopes operating in the 0.5-10 keV energy range, inheriting the design from eROSITA [2][3]. It provides field of view of about 1 deg diameter. The source localization error will be of 5-15 arcsec depending on the source strength [1]. The FXT is responsible for the quick follow-up observations of the triggered sources and will also observe other interested targets during the all-sky survey at the rest time.
Three FXT mirror modules were produced: structural and thermal model (STM), qualification model (QM) and flight model (FM). Media Lario could leverage on the manufacturing and integration infrastructure still available at its premises from the eROSITA programme [3][4], including the complete set of 54 mandrels needed for the mirror repliforming, property of MPE.
Media Lario produced and integrated the FXT mirror modules, each comprising 54 nested repliformed mirror shells; Max-Planck Institute (MPE) conducted the x-ray optical tests at the PANTER facility, for the acceptance of all the different models. This efficient collaboration enabled the on-time and in-quality delivery of the FXT mirror modules.
The imaging x-ray telescope (IXT) was first developed at the Institute of Precision Optical Engineering of Tongji University in 2007. Since then, we have made great progress on the development of mirror fabrication, coatings, and optic assembly. In this paper, we intend to provide an overview of the progress. Currently, we can routinely produce cylindrical mirror substrates with angular resolution of 30″ to 60″. To improve the effective area, coatings using C, Ni, and Pt layers were designed and achieved a high reflectivity at 0.5 to 10 keV. During the optic assembly, an
To overcome these limitations, we started in 2012 to design a facility aimed at generating a broad (170 x 60 mm2), uniform and low-divergent (1.5 arcsec HEW) X-ray beam within a small lab (∼ 9 x 18 m2), to characterize the ATHENA MM. BEaTriX (the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility) makes use of an X-ray microfocus source, a paraboloidal mirror, a crystal monochromation system, and an asymmetrically-cut diffracting crystal for the beam expansion. These optical components, in addition to a modular low-vacuum level (10-3 mbar), enable to match the ATHENA SPO acceptance requirements.
The realization of this facility at INAF-OAB in Merate (Italy) is now on going. Once completed, BEaTriX can be used to test the Silicon Pore Optics modules of the ATHENA X-ray observatory, as well as other optics, like the ones of the Arcus mission. In this paper we report the advancement status of the facility.