Toward large-area sub-arcsecond x-ray telescopes

Stephen L. O'Dell; Thomas L. Aldcroft; Ryan Allured; Carolyn Atkins; David N. Burrows; Jian Cao; Brandon D. Chalifoux; Kai-Wing Chan; Vincenzo Cotroneo; Ronald F. Elsner; Michael E. Graham; Mikhail V. Gubarev; Ralf K. Heilmann; Raegan L. Johnson-Wilke; Kiranmayee Kilaru; Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak; Charles F. Lillie; Stuart McMuldroch; Brian D. Ramsey; Paul B. Reid; Raul E. Riveros; Jacqueline M. Roche; Timo T. Saha; Mark L. Schattenburg; Daniel A. Schwartz; Susan E. Trolier-McKinstry; Melville P. Ulmer; Semyon Vaynman; Alexey Vikhlinin; Xiaoli Wang; Martin C. Weisskopf; Rudeger H. T. Wilke; William W. Zhang

doi:10.1117/12.2061882

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17 September 2014 Toward large-area sub-arcsecond x-ray telescopes

Stephen L. O'Dell, Thomas L. Aldcroft, Ryan Allured, Carolyn Atkins, David N. Burrows, Jian Cao, Brandon D. Chalifoux, Kai-Wing Chan, Vincenzo Cotroneo, Ronald F. Elsner, Michael E. Graham, Mikhail V. Gubarev, Ralf K. Heilmann, Raegan L. Johnson-Wilke, Kiranmayee Kilaru, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Charles F. Lillie, Stuart McMuldroch, Brian D. Ramsey, Paul B. Reid, Raul E. Riveros, Jacqueline M. Roche, Timo T. Saha, Mark L. Schattenburg, Daniel A. Schwartz, Susan E. Trolier-McKinstry, Melville P. Ulmer, Semyon Vaynman, Alexey Vikhlinin, Xiaoli Wang, Martin C. Weisskopf, Rudeger H. T. Wilke, William W. Zhang

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9208, Adaptive X-Ray Optics III; 920805 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2061882
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2014, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The future of x-ray astronomy depends upon development of x-ray telescopes with larger aperture areas (≈ 3 m²) and fine angular resolution (≈ 1″). Combined with the special requirements of nested grazing-incidence optics, the mass and envelope constraints of space-borne telescopes render such advances technologically and programmatically challenging. Achieving this goal will require precision fabrication, alignment, mounting, and assembly of large areas (≈ 600 m²) of lightweight (≈ 1 kg/m²areal density) high-quality mirrors at an acceptable cost (≈ 1 M$/m²of mirror surface area). This paper reviews relevant technological and programmatic issues, as well as possible approaches for addressing these issues—including active (in-space adjustable) alignment and figure correction.

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