Development of lightweight x-ray mirrors for the Constellation-X mission

William W. Zhang; Kai-Wing Chan; David A. Content; John P. Lehan; Robert Petre; Timo T. Saha; Mikhail Gubarev; William D. Jones; Stephen L. O'Dell

doi:10.1117/12.672138

13 June 2006 Development of lightweight x-ray mirrors for the Constellation-X mission

William W. Zhang, Kai-Wing Chan, David A. Content, John P. Lehan, Robert Petre, Timo T. Saha, Mikhail Gubarev, William D. Jones, Stephen L. O'Dell

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6266, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation II: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 62661V (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672138
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

Constellation-X is NASA's next major X-ray observatory. It requires X-ray mirrors with high throughput (3 m² effective area at 1 keV), moderate angular resolution (15" half power diameter), and light weight (about an order of magnitude lighter than XMM/Newton's). Over the past few years we have been developing a glass forming technology for making mirrors. This technology by construction meets from the outset two (throughput and weight) of the three requirements. Our development effort has been concentrated on improving the angular resolution. Our progress so far has shown that this technology not only can meet the angular resolution requirement of 15" HPD, but also has the potential to reach Constellation-X's goal of 5" HPD. This paper is a snapshot of our X-ray mirror development effort as of May 2006. It briefly describes the mirror fabrication process, results achieved, and important issues that are being worked on.

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William W. Zhang, Kai-Wing Chan, David A. Content, John P. Lehan, Robert Petre, Timo T. Saha, Mikhail Gubarev, William D. Jones, and Stephen L. O'Dell "Development of lightweight x-ray mirrors for the Constellation-X mission", Proc. SPIE 6266, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation II: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 62661V (13 June 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672138

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