The ground calibration of the NewATHENA mirror poses significant challenges owing to its unprecedented size, mass, and focal length. VERT-X is an innovative calibration facility designed to tackle this exceptionally demanding task. It relies on an X-ray parallel beam, generated by a micro-focus source positioned at the focus of an X-ray collimator. A raster-scan mechanism enables the beam movement, covering all NewATHENA optics at varying off-axis angles. The compactness of the concept offers several benefits, including the vertical geometry which implies minimal PSF degradation due to lateral gravity. Furthermore, this allows for a flexible choice of location. Indeed one of the most important feature of VERT-X is its contiguity with the mirror integration facility. The driving factor in the VERT-X design is to meet the NewATHENA calibration requirement for Half- Energy Width (HEW) accuracy at 0.1”. Key contributors to the error budget in the VERT-X design include the source size, collimator error, and raster-scan pointing accuracy. This paper provides an overview of the current status of the development of these critical parts.
The mirror assembly of the ESA New - Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (New-ATHENA) will be the largest x-ray optics ever built. Indeed, its unprecedented size, mass and focal length create great difficulties for the ground calibration. The VERT-X project aims at developing an innovative calibration facility which will be able to accomplish to this extremely challenging task. The design is based on a 2.5 cm2 parallel beam produced by an x-ray source positioned in the focus of a highly performing collimator. In order to cover the whole mirror, the beam will be accurately moved by a raster-scan with the capability to tilt up to three degrees in order to test the off-axis performance and the out of field stray-light. The whole system is enclosed in a cylindrical vacuum chamber about 20 m high and with a diameter ranging from 7 to 4 m. By design, VERT-X will be able to measure the New-ATHENA mirror half energy width (HEW) with a precision of 0.1”, all over the field of view, with the source size, the collimator error and the raster scan tracking accuracy being the most important terms of the error budget. The VERT-X project, started in 2018, is financed by ESA and conducted by a consortium that includes INAF together with EIE, Media Lario, BCV Progetti and Apogeo Space. This paper presents the current state of the development and manufacturing of the most critical systems of the facility, namely the raster-scan mechanism and the source-collimator vertical assembly.
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