IXO mirror segment (petal)
Date: 25 June 2009
Satellite: IXO
Copyright: ESA/Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics/Kayser-Threde/cosine Research
The large diameter mirror for the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) will be constructed in segments. The complete mirror will be formed from a number of petals, each of which is an azimuthal segment of the full mirror. The petals are in turn constructed from hundreds of individual mirror modules.
The 1.2-metre tall petal shown here during testing at the PANTER facility in Munich, Germany, contains two mirror modules (in the second-from-bottom row, at the first and seventh slot from the right edge of the petal).
Each mirror module is built using silicon pore optics. This is one of two technologies being investigated for the IXO mirror segments, the other being slumped glass.
IXO was an L-class candidate mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme that was studied between 2007 and 2011.
