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For more information about these technologies visit our Technology Database.
Significance: This slumped glass technique provided some of the world’s best thin grazing-angle X-ray mirror performance at the time, and was the predecessor for even better single-crystal silicon mirrors that are baselined for Lynx X-ray flagship mission concept
Project Title: Next Generation X-ray Optics: High Resolution ,Light Weight, and Low Cost
PI: Zhang, William (GSFC)
Significance: Highest-resolution X-ray grating technology; baselined for Lynx X-ray flagship mission concept
Project Title: Development of Fabrication Process for X-Ray CAT Gratings
PI: Mark Schattenburg (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research)
Significance: Developing antenna designs providing sensitivity, stability, and minimized particle susceptibility for bands required by the Inflation Probe, enabling identification of Inflation instants after the Big Bang
Project Title: Planar Antenna-Coupled Superconducting Detectors for CMB Polarimetry
PI: James Bock (JPL/Caltech)
Significance:TES microcalorimeters offer energy resolution for advanced X-ray observatories such as the European ATHENA mission
Project Title: High-Resolution Imaging X-ray Spectrometer
PI: Caroline Kilbourne (GSFC)
Significance: Adjustable X-ray optics are a backup technology for the Lynx large mission concept
Project Title: Adjustable X-ray Optics with Sub-Arcsecond Imaging / Moderate Angular Resolution Adjustable Full-shell Grazing Incidence X-ray Optics
PI: Paul Reid (SAO)
Significance: X-ray detectors operate far better when filters allow X-ray photons through and block longer wavelength light
Project Title: Directly-Deposited Blocking Filters for X-ray Imaging Detectors
PI: Mark Bautz (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research)
Significance: Deep-core manufacturing enables 4-m-class mirrors such as planned for the HabEx exoplanet observatory concept with significantly lower cost and risk
Project Title: Advanced Mirror Technology Development (AMTD) for Very Large Space Telescopes
PI: H. Philip Stahl (MSFC)
Significance:Advanced detectors developed by this team are baselined by SHIELDS, HabEx, LUVOIR, and ground facilities
Project Title: High-Efficiency Detectors in Photon Counting and Large Focal Plane Arrays
PI: Shouleh Nikzad (JPL/Caltech)
Significance: This high-resolution multi-pixel far-IR detector technology may enable or enhance future missions
Project Title: Heterodyne Technology for SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)
PI: Paul Goldsmith and Imran Mehdi (JPL)
Significance: X-ray reflection gratings enable high throughput, high spectral resolving power below 2 keV, a spectral band holding major astrophysics interest
Project Title: Off-Plane Grating Arrays for Future Missions
PI: Randall McEntaffer (PSU)
Significance: Advanced coatings with high reflectivity in the far UV enable future astrophysics missions by greatly enhancing system throughput in photon-starved far-UV observations
Project Title: Enhanced Al Mirrors for Far-UV Space Astronomy
PI: Manuel Quijada (GSFC)
Significance:The Wide-Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope (WFIRST), renamed to the Roman Space Telescope, expected to launch in the mid-2020s, is a NASA observatory designed to study dark energy and dark matter, search for and image exoplanets, and explore many topics in IR astrophysics.
Project Title: H4RG Near-IR Detector Array with 10-µm pixels for WFIRST and Space Astrophysics
PI: Bernard Rauscher (GSFC)
For more information about these technologies visit our Technology Database.
Significance: This slumped glass technique provided some of the world’s best thin grazing-angle X-ray mirror performance at the time, and was the predecessor for even better single-crystal silicon mirrors that are baselined for Lynx X-ray flagship mission concept
Project Title: Next Generation X-ray Optics: High Resolution ,Light Weight, and Low Cost
PI: Zhang, William (GSFC)
Significance: Highest-resolution X-ray grating technology; baselined for Lynx X-ray flagship mission concept
Project Title: Development of Fabrication Process for X-Ray CAT Gratings
PI: Mark Schattenburg (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research)
Significance: Developing antenna designs providing sensitivity, stability, and minimized particle susceptibility for bands required by the Inflation Probe, enabling identification of Inflation instants after the Big Bang
Project Title: Planar Antenna-Coupled Superconducting Detectors for CMB Polarimetry
PI: James Bock (JPL/Caltech)
Significance:TES microcalorimeters offer energy resolution for advanced X-ray observatories such as the European ATHENA mission
Project Title: High-Resolution Imaging X-ray Spectrometer
PI: Caroline Kilbourne (GSFC)
Significance: Adjustable X-ray optics are a backup technology for the Lynx large mission concept
Project Title: Adjustable X-ray Optics with Sub-Arcsecond Imaging / Moderate Angular Resolution Adjustable Full-shell Grazing Incidence X-ray Optics
PI: Paul Reid (SAO)
Significance: X-ray detectors operate far better when filters allow X-ray photons through and block longer wavelength light
Project Title: Directly-Deposited Blocking Filters for X-ray Imaging Detectors
PI: Mark Bautz (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research)
Significance: Deep-core manufacturing enables 4-m-class mirrors such as planned for the HabEx exoplanet observatory concept with significantly lower cost and risk
Project Title: Advanced Mirror Technology Development (AMTD) for Very Large Space Telescopes
PI: H. Philip Stahl (MSFC)
Significance:Advanced detectors developed by this team are baselined by SHIELDS, HabEx, LUVOIR, and ground facilities
Project Title: High-Efficiency Detectors in Photon Counting and Large Focal Plane Arrays
PI: Shouleh Nikzad (JPL/Caltech)
Significance: This high-resolution multi-pixel far-IR detector technology may enable or enhance future missions
Project Title: Heterodyne Technology for SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)
PI: Paul Goldsmith and Imran Mehdi (JPL)
Significance: X-ray reflection gratings enable high throughput, high spectral resolving power below 2 keV, a spectral band holding major astrophysics interest
Project Title: Off-Plane Grating Arrays for Future Missions
PI: Randall McEntaffer (PSU)
Significance: Advanced coatings with high reflectivity in the far UV enable future astrophysics missions by greatly enhancing system throughput in photon-starved far-UV observations
Project Title: Enhanced Al Mirrors for Far-UV Space Astronomy
PI: Manuel Quijada (GSFC)
Significance:The Wide-Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope (WFIRST), renamed to the Roman Space Telescope, expected to launch in the mid-2020s, is a NASA observatory designed to study dark energy and dark matter, search for and image exoplanets, and explore many topics in IR astrophysics.
Project Title: H4RG Near-IR Detector Array with 10-µm pixels for WFIRST and Space Astrophysics
PI: Bernard Rauscher (GSFC)