On-orbit performance of the ALEXIS EUV telescopes

Jeffrey J. Bloch; Bradley C. Edwards; William C. Priedhorsky; Diane C. Roussel-Dupre; Barham W. Smith; Oswald H. W. Siegmund; Timothy Carone; Scott L. Cully; Ted Rodriguez-Bell; John K. Warren; John V. Vallerga

doi:10.1117/12.186820

16 September 1994 On-orbit performance of the ALEXIS EUV telescopes

Jeffrey J. Bloch, Bradley C. Edwards, William C. Priedhorsky, Diane C. Roussel-Dupre, Barham W. Smith, Oswald H. W. Siegmund, Timothy Carone, Scott L. Cully, Ted Rodriguez-Bell, John K. Warren, John V. Vallerga

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 2280, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy V; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.186820
Event: SPIE's 1994 International Symposium on Optics, Imaging, and Instrumentation, 1994, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

The Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) satellite is Los Alamos' first attempt at building and flying a low cost, rapid development, technology demonstration and scientific space mission. The ALEXIS satellite contains the two experiments: the ALEXIS telescope array, (which consists of six EUV/ultrasoft x- ray telescopes utilizing multilayer mirrors, each with a 33 degree field-of-view), and a VHF ionospheric experiment called Blackbeard. A ground station located at Los Alamos exclusively controls the spacecraft. The 248 pound ALEXIS satellite was launched by a Pegasus booster into a 400 x 450 nautical mile, 70 degree inclination orbit on April 25, 1993. Images from a video system on the rocket indicated that ALEXIS had been severely damaged during launch with one of the 4 solar panels breaking away from its mounting. (It later turned out that the solar paddle was still attached to the spacecraft but only through cable bundles.) Attempts at communicating with the satellite were unsuccessful until a surprised ground crew received a short transmission on June 2. By mid July, ground station operators had regained full control of the satellite and began to initiate scientific operations with both the telescope array and the VHF experiment. In this paper we will discuss a preliminary analysis of the on-orbit performance of EUV telescopes on ALEXIS.

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Jeffrey J. Bloch, Bradley C. Edwards, William C. Priedhorsky, Diane C. Roussel-Dupre, Barham W. Smith, Oswald H. W. Siegmund, Timothy Carone, Scott L. Cully, Ted Rodriguez-Bell, John K. Warren, and John V. Vallerga "On-orbit performance of the ALEXIS EUV telescopes", Proc. SPIE 2280, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy V, (16 September 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.186820

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