SVOM (Space based Variable Object Monitor) is a Chinese-French mission dedicated to the study of the most luminous explosions in the Universe: Gamma-Ray Bursts. This observatory for time-domain astrophysics is due for launch on June 24th 2024. Among the four space borne instruments is the Micro-channel X-ray Telescope (MXT). The MXT is a focusing X-ray telescope, based on “lobster-eye” optics, whose main goal is to improve the localization of transient sources, as well as to measure their timing and spectral properties. The MXT camera is implementing a 256 × 256 pixels pnCCD detector, sensitive in the 0.2-10 keV energy range. The spectral performance of the MXT instrument was measured in 2021 during the calibration campaign at the MPE PANTER X-ray facility and the End-to-End testing during the vacuum and thermal tests of the full satellite in the SECM Shanghai integration facility. SVOM is in a low-Earth orbit crossing the South Atlantic Anomaly, and the MXT will thus be submitted to irradiation, in particular from protons, that will cause radiation damage. To anticipate the evolution of the MXT performances over its three years mission lifetime, a spare flight model of the MXT detector plane has been irradiated with 50 MeV protons at the Arronax cyclotron facility, and then installed and characterized at the X-ray Metrology beamline of the SOLEIL Synchrotron in June 2023.
This paper presents the results of calibration campaigns to infer the performances of the MXT instrument over the lifetime of the SVOM mission.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.