16 - 21 June 2024
Yokohama, Japan
Conference 13093 > Paper 13093-193
Paper 13093-193

Design, fabrication, and testing of Wolter-I x-ray optic for Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager (SSAXI)-Rocket

On demand | Presented live 17 June 2024

Abstract

Swift Solar Activity X-ray Image (SSAXI-Rocket), mounted on the High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) as a sub-payload, is a wide field solar X-ray imager designed to image Solar X-ray flares at high cadence (>5 Hz). SSAXI-Rocket consists of a Wolter-I optic with a focal length of 1 m, coupled with a monolithic CMOS X-ray sensor at the focal plane. The optics for SSAXI-Rocket were fabricated using the Electroformed Ni Replication (ENR) technique at Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian. Each optic has both parabolic and hyperbolic sections with 62 mm diameter at the inflection plane with a total optic length of 18 cm. The performance of the flight and flight spare optic mounted on a spider was measured at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Stray Light Testing Facility (SLTF) to characterize the Point Spread Function (PSF) and Effective Area (EA). The flight optic selected for SSAXI-Rocket shows on-axis 16′′ Half Power Diameter (HPD) and 5′′ Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) at 4.5 keV, exceeding the 23′′ HPD and 9′′ FWHM requirement. The effective area is about 0.64 cm2 at 4.5 keV. Coupled with the fast readout of an X-ray CMOS sensor, this optic enables rapid high-resolution X-ray imaging over a wide field of view (> 20′ x 20′). Here we review the design, fabrication and testing of the SSAXI-Rocket optic and summarize its performance.

Presenter

Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
Dr. Hong is a Senior Research Scientist at Harvard University. He has over 20 years of experience in development of X-ray telescopes for high energy astrophysics, planetary science and Heliophysics. As a founding member of the REXIS instrument on OSIRIS-REx, he served as an instrument scientist for REXIS. He is the science-PI of the on-going NASA PICASSO programs for development of Miniature lightweight X-ray Optics (MiXO) for planetary science. He is a Co-I of an APRA grant for development of High Resolution Energetic X-ray Imager (HREXI). He is also an active member of the NuSTAR Galactic survey working group. He also led a planetary SmallSat concept study for the CubeSat X-ray Telescope (CubeX) as a deputy-PI and an astrophysics concept study for the SmallSat Exosphere Explorer of hot Jupiters (SEEJ) as a deputy-PI. He is serving as the lead instrument scientist for the Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager (SSAXI) project.
Application tracks: Astrophotonics
Presenter/Author
Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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Ricardo Bruni
Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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The Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville (United States)
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NASA Marshall Space Flight Ctr. (United States)
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Sophia A. Sánchez-Maes
Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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David Caldwell
Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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Edward Hertz
Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)
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NASA Marshall Space Flight Ctr. (United States)
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Ctr. for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (United States)