Ceramic mould development for precision bending of thin glass

In high-energy astrophysics, X-ray telescopes play a key role as a primary source of information. However, the weight of the satellite-based telescope mirrors limits their size and thus their light collecting power. The research project "precision bending of thin glass" aims to develop lightweight and precise alternatives for X-ray mirrors based on thin glass segments. Glass has many material-specific advantages, and glass samples with thicknesses < 0.5 mm and an extremely low micro-roughness are commercially available. They can be shaped by a thermal treatment during which the shape of an underlying mould is transferred to the glass in a process called glass slumping. The project's core is the investigation of heat-resistant porous ceramic materials for the production of moulds and the development of appropriate high-precision machining processes. The project aims for the manufacturing of an exemplary mould, which allows the slumping of mirror segments for an X-ray optics with shaping supported using vacuum pumping from the mould side. The necessary dimensional accuracy of < 1 μm / 100 mm on the mould and on the glass should be finally demonstrated. The requirements to an open-pored and chemically inactive ceramics, which is dimensionally stable under the thermal process, are demanding, so the range of suitable materials is narrow. Our primary choice for the mould material is a carbon-fiber reinforced silicon carbide (HB-Cesic®). HB-Cesic® is well known for its thermal and mechanical stability and has already been used for glass slumping. The following Fig. 1 shows a fully polished mould out of dense HB-Cesic®

Multifoil optics for rocket experiments

© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. A novel design of x-ray optical system wide field telescope for astrophysical rocket experiments is investigated and tested in real space flight experiment. The proposed system is based on 1D and 2D modules with Schmidt Lobster Eye (LE) configuration allowing usage of multi-foil mirrors arranged to Schmidt profile

Multifoil optics for rocket experiments

© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. A novel design of x-ray optical system wide field telescope for astrophysical rocket experiments is investigated and tested in real space flight experiment. The proposed system is based on 1D and 2D modules with Schmidt Lobster Eye (LE) configuration allowing usage of multi-foil mirrors arranged to Schmidt profile

REX le X-ray telescope experiment overview

© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. The paper summarizes the Rocket EXperiment (REX) Lobster Eye (LE) X-ray Telescope payload results. The experiment was performed by the PennState University with X-ray spectroscope on board a Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket (WRXR) launched on 4th April, 2018. The secondary payload was the REX LE X-ray Telescope. The REX LE X-ray telescope consists of two X-ray telescopes with one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) optics, a visible-light camera and an IR grid-eye. The primary structure consists of a metal housing for the optics and a carbon fiber baffle with the Timepix sensors mounted at the end. The observation data from the experiment are briefly presented and discussed

REX le X-ray telescope experiment overview

© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. The paper summarizes the Rocket EXperiment (REX) Lobster Eye (LE) X-ray Telescope payload results. The experiment was performed by the PennState University with X-ray spectroscope on board a Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket (WRXR) launched on 4th April, 2018. The secondary payload was the REX LE X-ray Telescope. The REX LE X-ray telescope consists of two X-ray telescopes with one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) optics, a visible-light camera and an IR grid-eye. The primary structure consists of a metal housing for the optics and a carbon fiber baffle with the Timepix sensors mounted at the end. The observation data from the experiment are briefly presented and discussed