Conventional mining might not be sufficient to support the growth of humankind which is heavily dependent upon rare materials in technical applications. Asteroid mining might be an answer, with Near-Earth objects (NEOs) being the first targets. However, the first step in the asteroid mining cascade is to probe reachable asteroids. Moreover, to identify the best candidates for further activities hundreds to thousands of asteroids must be screened. The fast progressing development of CubeSats might allow the space community to do the initial in-situ screening in a minimalistical and economical manner. Additionally, formation flying might enable the miniaturization of optical payloads for asteroid composition analysis in CubeSats. The recent developments in formation flying are summarised in this study and the possibility of utilizing formation flying CubeSats for asteroid surveillance explored.
Grazing incident Soft X-ray source (SXR) mirrors find applications in astrophysics, space plasma research, hot plasma research and in various imaging and spectroscopy laboratory systems. SXR sources and vacuum optical beamlines are needed for their characterization and testing. A micro focus laboratory Soft X-ray source, which can be used in facilities for SXR optical components metrology, was designed and realized. The source in vacuum consists of an electron gun with stabilized electron beam focused to a 200 um spot on a target from appropriate material. Four different targets allowing generation of SXR with four different energies from four different elements are placed on a rotational turret. Required photon energy can be selected without vacuum interruption.
We present very preliminary results the design, assembly, and tests of new Lobster Eye (LE) and Kirkpatrick Baez (KB) modules based on Multi Foil Optics technology (MFO). The LE X-ray optics is a wide field of view (FOV) optics type Lobster Eye (LE) with a short (400 mm) focal length (suitable for CubeSat application) based on Schmidt design. The 2D LE optics consists of two orthogonal sub-modules of flat smooth reflective foils and each sub-modules focuses in one direction. The key parameters (the FWHM, the FOV (Field of view), and angular resolution, effective area) of the 2D LE optic were measured with different detectors. The advantage of MFO LE is that for off-axis points the angular resolution is preserved throughout the FOV, as demonstrated by measuring. There is a combined detector system that includes two detectors - Timepix3 Quad and spectroscope. The benefit of the combined detector system was demonstrated in the real measurement. Moreover, a new generation multiple arrays module of 2D X-ray KB optics with long f (nearly 6 meters) based on multi-foil silicon assembling technology was designed, manufactured, and tested in optical light and in X-rays at the Panter facility and the preliminary results will be also presented and discussed.
The paper presents the X-ray Multi-Foil Optical (MFO) system proposed for the CubeSat demonstrator. The Lobster Eye (LE) design represents wide field of view (FOV) X-ray optics. This feature is unique in comparison with classical Wolter types of X-ray optics that reaches a field of view of typically 1 degree or less. LE optics can theoretically achieve an unlimited field of view, but for practical reasons, modules with, for example, 6 deg x 6 deg large FOV can be designed, developed, and constructed. Presented theoretical study of the Multi-Foil wide-field X-ray “Lobster eye” based optics shows effects of focal length, foil spacing and reflective surface (Au versus Ir). The main parameters that have been compared are effective area, gain, FWHM and/or transmission. The system can be used as an all‐sky monitor in future projects.
The planned XFEL at the Paul Scherrer Institut, the SwissFEL, is a fourth generation light source. Meanwhile the first
hard X - ray FEL was taken into operation, the LCLS at Stanford, USA. Two further hard XFELs are in construction.
One in Hamburg, Germany and the second at Spring - 8, Japan. Thanks to the beam properties of the XFEL, these new
sources promise to bring novel insights and breakthroughs in many scientific disciplines. For engineers and designers
new challenges arise in terms of material choice, damage thresholds and beam property conservation. The Swiss Light
Source optics group is currently working on the beamline optics design of the SwissFEL beamlines. The preliminary
optics design of the two undulator beamlines which serve six experiments is under preparation. In this article a
preliminary layout of the hard X - ray Aramis undulator beamline is presented. Several beamline designs have been
evaluated. Beam deflection and splitting via mirrors and diamonds is presented. The SwissFEL is planned to be
operational in 2016.
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