Updates after the Near-Earth Commissioning Phase of Italian Spring Accelerometer – ISA

AbstractISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer) is a high sensitivity accelerometer flying, as scientific payload, on-board one of the two spacecraft (the Mercury Planetary Orbiter) of BepiColombo, the first ESA mission to Mercury. The first commissioning phase (performed in the period November 2018 - August 2019) allowed to verify the functionality of the instrument itself as well as of the related data handling and archiving system. Moreover, the acceleration measurements gathered in this time frame allow to envisage the potentiality of such an instrument as a high-accuracy monitor of the spacecraft mechanical environment

Caratterizzazione delle sonde elettrostatiche CIRA presso IAPS

Le misurazioni della densità di corrente ionica nel plasma o nel fascio ionico di dispositivi di propulsione elettrica per veicoli spaziali sono di grande rilevanza, in quanto il flusso di ioni espulsi determina le caratteristiche del propulsore come spinta, impulso specifico e utilizzo del propellente, nonché le prestazioni dell’intero sistema di propulsione. Inoltre, una conoscenza accurata e completa della corrente ionica è fondamentale per la validazione di modellazione della plume e per le simulazioni numeriche, per prove di accettazione dei propulsori, per lo studio degli effetti di impianto e per comprendere le interazioni tra plasma e veicolo spaziale. In questa attività si mettono a confronto tre diverse tipologie di sonde: una sonda planare con guard-ring (sonda di Faraday), una sonda planare con collimatore (coppa di Faraday) e due sonde di Langmuir di tipo cilindrico. Nell'ambito dell'Accordo Quadro di mutua collaborazione scientifica tra INAF-IAPS e CIRA (2021), gli obiettivi principali di questo studio sono la caratterizzazione delle sonde elettrostatiche CIRA e l'identificazione delle caratteristiche della diagnostica che permettono una più chiara/efficiente valutazione della propulsione. Lo studio fornisce anche raccomandazioni per la corretta progettazione di una sonda di corrente ionica di alta qualità, nonché indicazioni per il funzionamento delle sonde e il trattamento dei dati

ALMA band 2+3 (67-116 GHz) optics: Design and first measurements

The ALMA telescope is one of the largest on-ground astronomical projects in the world. It has been producing great scientific results since the beginning of operations in 2011. Of all the originally planned bands, band 2 (67-90 GHz) is the last band to be implemented into the array. Recent technological progress has open the possibility to combine bands 2 and 3 (84-116 GHz) into a single wideband receiver. This paper describes the first efforts to design wideband optics which cover both bands, from 67 to 116 GHz, using a profiled corrugated horn and a modified Fresnel lens. First measurements were performed at ESO in Dec15-Jan16 and showed good agreement with simulations

In-flight calibration system of imaging x-ray polarimetry explorer

The NASA/ASI Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, which will be launched in 2021, will be the first instrument to perform spatially resolved X-ray polarimetry on several astronomical sources in the 2-8 keV energy band. These measurements are made possible owing to the use of a gas pixel detector (GPD) at the focus of three X-ray telescopes. The GPD allows simultaneous measurements of the interaction point, energy, arrival time, and polarization angle of detected X-ray photons. The increase in sensitivity, achieved 40 years ago, for imaging and spectroscopy with the Einstein satellite will thus be extended to X-ray polarimetry for the first time. The characteristics of gas multiplication detectors are subject to changes over time. Because the GPD is a novel instrument, it is particularly important to verify its performance and stability during its mission lifetime. For this purpose, the spacecraft hosts a filter and calibration set (FCS), which includes both polarized and unpolarized calibration sources for performing in-flight calibration of the instruments. In this study, we present the design of the flight models of the FCS and the first measurements obtained using silicon drift detectors and CCD cameras, as well as those obtained in thermal vacuum with the flight units of the GPD. We show that the calibration sources successfully assess and verify the functionality of the GPD and validate its scientific results in orbit; this improves our knowledge of the behavior of these detectors in X-ray polarimetry

PixDD: a multi-pixel silicon drift detector for high-throughput spectral-timing studies

The Pixelated silicon Drift Detector (PixDD) is a two-dimensional multi-pixel X-ray sensor based on the technology of Silicon Drift Detectors, designed to solve the dead time and pile-up issues of photon-integrating imaging detectors. Read out by a two-dimensional self-triggering Application-Specific Integrated Circuit named RIGEL, to which the sensor is bump-bonded, it operates in the 0:5 — 15 keV energy range and is designed to achieve single-photon sensitivity and good spectroscopic capabilities even at room temperature or with mild cooling (< 150 eV resolution at 6 keV at 0 °C). The paper reports on the design and performance tests of the 128-pixel prototype of the fully integrated system

Scientific report of the project COMpton Polarimeter with Avalanche Silicon readout (COMPASS)

Rendicontazione scientifica mandata all'INAF alla conclusione del progetto COMpton Polarimeter with Avalanche Silicon readout (COMPASS), finanziato dal bando TECNO INAF 2014COMpton Polarimeter with Avalanche Silicon readout (COMPASS) is a research and development project that aims to measure the polarization of X-ray photons through Compton Scattering. The measurement is obtained by using a set of small rods of fast scintillation materials with both low-Z (as active scatterer) and high-Z (as absorber), all read-out with Silicon Photomultipliers. By this method we can operate scattering and absorbing elements in coincidence, in order to reduce the background. This is the scientific report submitted to INAF at the end of the COMPASS project, funded through the grant TECNO INAF 201

Calibration of the IXPE instrument

IXPE scientific payload comprises of three telescopes, each composed of a mirror and a photoelectric polarimeter based on the Gas Pixel Detector design. The three focal plane detectors, together with the unit which interfaces them to the spacecraft, are named IXPE Instrument and they will be built and calibrated in Italy; in this proceeding, we will present how IXPE Instrument will be calibrated, both on-ground and in-flight. The Instrument Calibration Equipment is being finalized at INAF-IAPS in Rome (Italy) to produce both polarized and unpolarized radiation, with a precise knowledge of direction, position, energy and polarization state of the incident beam. In flight, a set of four calibration sources based on radioactive material and mounted on a filter and calibration wheel will allow for the periodic calibration of all of the three IXPE focal plane detectors independently. A highly polarized source and an unpolarized one will be used to monitor the response to polarization; the remaining two will be used to calibrate the gain through the entire lifetime of the mission

IXPE instrument integration, testing and verification

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a scientific observatory with the purpose of expand observation space adding polarization property to the X-ray source's currently measured characteristics. The mission selected in the context of NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) is a collaboration between NASA and ASI that will provide to observatory the instrumentation of focal plane. IXPE instrument is composed by three photoelectric polarimeters based on the Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) design, integrated by INFN inside the detector unit (DU) that comprises of the electrical interfaces required to control and communicate with the GPD. The three DUs are interfaced with spacecraft through a detector service unit (DSU) that collect scientific and ancillary data and provides a basically data handling and interfaces to manage the three DUs. AIV has been planned to combine calibration of DUs and Instrument integration and verification activities. Due the tight schedule and the scientific and functional requirements to be verified, in IAPS/INAF have been assembled two equipment's that work in parallel. The flight model of each DU after the environmental tests campaign was calibrated on-ground using the Instrument Calibration Equipment (ICE) and subsequently integrated in the instrument in the AIV-T process on a AIV and Calibration Equipment (ACE), both the facilities managed by Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) that emulate the spacecraft interfaces of power supply, functional and thermal control and scientific data collection. AIV activities test functionalities and nominal/off-nominal orbits activities of IXPE instrument each time a calibrated DU is connected to DSU flight model completing step by step the full instrument. Here we describe the details of instrumentation and procedures adopted to make possible the full integration and test activities compatibly with calibration of IXPE Instrument