The development of the μROSI X-ray telescope

The μROSI (Micro Roentgen Satellite Instrument) miniature X-ray telescope is the first X-ray telescope specifically designed for an amateur micro satellite. Its mission is to perform an all-sky survey in the soft X-ray band on board the Italian satellite Max-Valier. Due to the limitations imposed by the small size of the spacecraft, the instrument features a silicon drift detector (SDD) with very low power consumption and a focusing optics that consists of 12 nested mirror shells. With a field of view of 1°, μROSI will perform an all-sky survey flying in sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). As a secondary mission objective, the telescope will observe the Earth's upper atmosphere during the all-sky survey, potentially detecting the O2 absorption line. This paper describes the overall telescope design and gives an overview of the key components of the telescope: the mirror subsystem and the detector subsystem. All subsystems have been tested with flight-like engineering models. The results of these tests are presented in this paper. The silicon drift detector (SDD) of the μROSI telescope has been tested with a breadboard electronics and the engineering model of the electronics is currently being manufactured. The breadboard test proved that the SDD together with the specifically developed electronics is capable of measuring high resolution spectra in the soft X-ray bandwidth. One demonstrator mirror shell has been produced and tested in the PANTER X-ray test facility to verify the X-ray properties. The measurements suggest that the final μROSI mirror system fulfills all requirements for conducting its mission successfully.