Nicholas Thomas (ST12/LEXI Co-Investigator), Wayne Baumgartner (ST12), and Stephen Cheney (ES23) hosted and participated in the successful, full telescope, calibration of the LEXI at the Marshall 100-Meter X-ray Beamline/Stray Light Test Facility. LEXI’s Principle Investigator, Boston University’s Professor Brian Walsh, …
On-site visit by Moog CSA Engineering occurred 5/3-5/22 for the operational health assessment of the Center of Curvature Optical Bench (CoCOB) hexapod. Activities included visual inspections, power-on and execution of homing procedures to test the hexapod range, accuracy and resolution …
“Precision thermal control technology to enable thermally stable telescopes,” by Thomas E. Brooks and H. Philip Stahl has been published in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments and Systems (JATIS) http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.8.2.024001. The paper summarizes results from the Precision Thermal Control …
Publication in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments and Systems Read More »
The Kickoff for Moog Contract on 4/11/2022 for the Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE) and Metrology Motion Control Systems (MMCS) Final Design, Fabrication, AI&T, and Commissioning. This effort is in support of the European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Marshall Space Flight …
In December and January, Phil Stahl (ST10), Marshall Optics Expert, has provided numerous presentations and interviews about the Webb Space Telescope (WST). On 12/15/21, he gave a virtual lecture to the Optica Student Chapter at the Okinawa Institute of Science …
Phil Stahl Presents Numerous Webb Space Telescope Lectures and Interviews Read More »
The Facility Data Acquisition and Control System update at the X-ray & Cryogenic Facility has been completed. In 2020, Phase 1 of the update involved replacement of the programmable logic controllers. This recently completed Phase 2 activity involved the replacement …
X-Ray & Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) Data Acquisition and Control System (FDACS) Update Read More »
X-ray Characterization Test #2 has been completed. The team successfully reinstalled the thermal densing cylinder and the beam monitor structure in the vacuum chamber. New Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) were fitted to the beam monitor and beam mapper motion stage …
X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) X-ray Characterization Test #2 Read More »
The update to the graphical user interface (GUI) software of the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility has been completed. This activity to replace the outdated GUI screen ware has been in progress on-site by Alabama Controls, Inc. and ST15 personnel since …
X-ray and Cryogenic Facility Graphical User Interface Update Read More »
An article featuring the APD Predictive Thermal Control (PTC) project was posted to the SMD Technology webpage at https://science.nasa.gov/technology/technology-highlights/controlling-the-temperature-of-telescope-mirrors-to-search-for-earth-like-planets . IT is also highlighted on the NASA Science Home Page (https://science.nasa.gov/) in the “Latest Science News” section. It will also be …
