Assessment of the present NASA optical metrology capabilities and recommendations for establishing an in-house NASA Optical Metrology Group

An investigation into when it was first recognized that there was a deficiency in NASA optical metrology oversight capability, why this deficiency existed unnoticed for so long, and a proposal for correcting the problem is presented. It is explained why this optical metrology oversight is so critical to program success and at the same time, why it is difficult to establish due to the nature of the technology. The solution proposed is the establishment of an Optics Metrology Group within the NASA/MSFC Optics Branch with a line of authority from NASA S & MA

Calibration and alignment of metrology system for the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array mission

A metrology system to measure the on-orbit movement of a ten meter mast has been built for the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) x-ray observatory. In this paper, the metrology system is described, and the performance is measured. The laser beam stability is discussed in detail. Pre-launch alignment and calibration are also described. The invisible infrared laser beams must be aligned to their corresponding detectors without deploying the telescope in Earth’s gravity. Finally, a possible method for in-flight calibration of the metrology system is described

Production and calibration of the first HEFT hard x-ray optics module

Complete hard X-ray optics modules are currently being produced for the High Energy Focusing Telescope (HEFT), a balloon born mission that will observe a wide range of objects including young supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei, and galaxy clusters at energies between 20 and 70 keV. Large collecting areas are achieved by tightly nesting layers of grazing incidence mirrors in a conic approximation Wolter-I design. The segmented layers are made of thermally-formed glass substrates coated with depth-graded multilayer films for enhanced reflectivity. Our novel mounting technique involves constraining these mirror segments to successive layers of precisely machined graphite spacers. We report the production and calibration of the first HEFT optics module

Shape reconstruction from gradient data

We present a novel method for reconstructing the shape of an object from measured gradient data. A certain class of optical sensors does not measure the shape of an object, but its local slope. These sensors display several advantages, including high information efficiency, sensitivity, and robustness. For many applications, however, it is necessary to acquire the shape, which must be calculated from the slopes by numerical integration. Existing integration techniques show drawbacks that render them unusable in many cases. Our method is based on approximation employing radial basis functions. It can be applied to irregularly sampled, noisy, and incomplete data, and it reconstructs surfaces both locally and globally with high accuracy.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, zip-file, submitted to Applied Optic

Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence Reference Materials for Cascade Impactor Air Quality Monitoring Systems

The 12th International Conference on “Instrumental Methods of Analysis” www.ima2021.gr (accessed on 8 November 2021)), was organized by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and National Technical University of Athens, during 20–23 September 2021 as a virtual event, providing the opportunity for high-level analytical scientists from all around the world to promote their relevant research. IMA is a biannual series of conferences that started in 1999 and cover all areas of Chemical Analysis, including the development of new techniques, modern trends, and applications in a wide range of scientific disciplines. To date, several leading analytical chemists from Greece and abroad have presented their research work at previous IMA meetings. The 12th IMA conference (in a virtual format for the first time), had the ambition to bring together some of the most talented and innovative analytical chemists from all over the world for an excellent scientific online conference. The program of the 4-day event attended by 260 participants from 23 countries, included 14 invited speakers, 73 oral presentations, and 98 poster contributions. Covered topics included: spectrometric and electrometric analysis; chromatographic, mass spectrometric, microscopic, and thermal analysis methods; proteomics, metabolomics, metallomics, and elemental speciation analysis; chemical and biosensors; field analysis—mobile analytical instruments; miniaturized analytical systems (lab-on-a-chip), micro-, and nanofluidics; immunoassays and electrophoretic separation techniques; sampling techniques and strategies; robotics and automation; quality control—quality assurance in analysis; metrology; data processing and chemometrics; environmental analysis; biomedical (ecotoxicological and clinical) and pharmaceutical analysis; food analysis; materials analysis (nanomaterials, smart/advanced materials, and surface analysis); archaeometry; and analytical chemistry markets and possibilities for commercialization. Special sessions, focused on aerosol metrology (supported by EU Project AEROMET II), advanced X-ray techniques (supported by the European X-ray Spectrometry Association), and application of chemical analysis in the study of virus spread analytics (airborne and wastewaters), were also organized within the frame of IMA-2021

Testing of the Mirrors for the Constellation-X Spectroscopy X-ray Telescope with a Refractive Null

We present an introduction to the use of a refractive null lens for testing grazing incidence x-ray mirrors for the Constellation-X mission. The singular role of mirror mounting in glass shell mirror metrology is also touched upon. We compare results achieved to date with mission requirements along with some of the unique properties of the null lens. Additionally, uses beyond mirror metrology are briefly discussed