X-ray telescope onboard Astro-E: optical design and fabrication of thin foil mirrors
2001
X-ray telescopes (XRT’s) of nested thin foil mirrors are
developed for Astro-E, the fifth Japanese x-ray astronomy
satellite. Although the launch was not successful, the design
concept, fabrication, and alignment procedure are summarized. The
main purpose of the Astro-E XRT is to collect hard x rays up to 10 keV
with high efficiency and to provide medium spatial resolution in
limited weight and volume. Compared with the previous mission,
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), a
slightly longer focal length of 4.5–4.75 m and a larger diameter of 40
cm yields an effective area of 1750 cm2 at 8 keV with five
telescopes. The image quality is also improved to 2-arc min
half-power diameter by introduction of a replication
process. Platinum is used instead of gold for the reflectors of one
of the five telescopes to enhance the high-energy response. The
fabrication and alignment procedure is also summarized. Several
methods for improvement are suggested for the reflight Astro-E II
mission and for other future missions. Preflight calibration
results will be described in a forthcoming second paper, and a detailed
study of images will be presented in a third paper.
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