Micro-X, the TES X-ray imaging rocket: First year progress

Patrick Wikus*, J. M. Rutherford, J. S. Adams, Y. Bagdasarova, S. R. Bandler, M. Bautz, K. Boyce, G. Brown, S. Deiker, W. B. Doriese, E. Figueroa-Feliciano, K. Flanagan, M. Galeazzi, G. C. Hilton, U. Hwang, K. D. Irwin, R. L. Kelley, T. Kallman, C. A. Kilbourne, S. KisselS. W. Leman, A. Levine, M. Loewenstein, D. Martinez-Galarce, R. Mushotzky, D. McCammon, D. Najjar, R. Petre, F. S. Porter, C. D. Reintsema, T. Saab, N. Schulz, P. Serlemitsos, R. Smith, J. N. Ullom, K. Yoha

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Micro-X is a sounding-rocket experiment that will combine a transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter array with an imaging mirror to obtain high-spectral-resolution images of astronomical X-ray sources. The instrument's resolution across the 0.3-2.5 keV band will be 2 eV. The first flight will target the region of the Bright Eastern Knot of the Puppis A supernova remnant and is slated for January 2011. The obtained high-resolution X-ray spectra will be used to ascertain the temperature and ionization state of the X-ray-emitting gas and to determine its velocity structure. The TES array is read out by a time-division superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) multiplexing system. The detector front end assembly and the SQUID multiplexing circuit are cooled to the operating temperature of 50 mK with an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR). The design of this refrigerator is tailored to the requirements of rocket flight. Stable operation of the TES array close to the ADR magnet will be achieved with a magnetic shielding system, which will be based on a combination of a bucking coil and high-permeability and superconducting shield materials to cancel out residual fields. We describe our progress in developing the Micro-X instrument.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number5075607
Pages (from-to)553-556
Number of pages4
JournalIEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2009

Funding

Manuscript received August 19, 2008. First published June 16, 2009; current version published July 10, 2009. This work was supported by NASA under Grant NNX07AK52G. P. Wikus, J. M. Rutherford, Y. Bagdasarova, M. Bautz, E. Figueroa-Feli-ciano, K. Flanagan, S. Kissel, S. W. Leman, A. Levine, D. Najjar and N. Schulz are with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA (e-mail: [email protected]; ). J. S. Adams, S. R. Bandler, K. Boyce, U. Hwang, R. L. Kelley, T. Kallman, C. A. Kilbourne, M. Loewenstein, R. Mushotzky, R. Petre, F. S. Porter, P. Ser-lemitsos and R. Smith are with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Green-belt, MD 20771 USA. G. Brown is with the High Energy Density Physics and Astrophysics Div., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550 USA. S. Deiker and D. Martinez-Galarce are with the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA. W. B. Doriese, G. C. Hilton, K. D. Irwin, C. D. Reintsema and J. N. Ullom are with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305 USA. M. Galeazzi is with the University of Miami, Department of Physics, Coral Gables, FL 33146 USA. D. McCammon is with the Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 USA. T. Saab and K. Yoha are with the Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA. Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2009.2019129

Keywords

  • Cryogenics
  • Rockets
  • SQUIDs
  • Transition edge sensors
  • X-ray astronomy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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