Mirror Quadrants for XRISM

XRISM turntable animations, available both as 4K/30 and 60 fps movies and as frames. The exposed tank behind the truss structure on the side opposite the solar panels houses the Resolve instrument.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab XRISM right-side flyby, available both as a 4K/30 fps movie and as frames. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab XRISM right side to left side flyby, favoring the X-ray mirrors and star trackers in the front, available both as a 4K/30 fps movie and as frames.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab XRISM flyover, favoring the X-ray mirrors and star trackers in the front and the Resolve instrument within the truss structure at the spacecraft's far end. Available both as a 4K/30 fps movie and as frames.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Illustration of XRISM in space favoring the side opposite the solar panels, available in 8K and with transparent background.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Illustration of XRISM in space favoring the X-ray mirrors and star trackers in front, available in 8K and with transparent background.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Illustration of XRISM, left front view, available in 8K and with transparent background.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Illustration of XRISM, right rear view from above, available in 8K and with transparent background.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Illustration of XRISM, left side view from above, available in 8K and with transparent background.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab This page contains animations and illustrations of the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch into orbit around Earth in 2023.The mission, abbreviated XRISM (pronounced “crism”), is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, along with ESA (the European Space Agency) participation, to investigate the X-ray universe using high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. XRISM features two instruments: Resolve, an X-ray calorimeter spectrometer, and Xtend, an X-ray imager. Cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, Resolve’s detector can measure the slight amount of heat generated when each pixel absorbs a single X-ray photon. Xtend will image a field of view about 60% larger than the apparent size of a full moon, giving it XRISM the widest view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developed the X-ray Mirror Assemblies used for both instruments, as well as the Resolve detector and many of its subsystems. Related pages

Team members Lawrence Lozipone of Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc. and Yang Soong, a researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park, work with flight mirrors for the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). Nested aluminum mirror segments – 1,624 of them for each X-ray Mirror Assembly – focus the incoming X-rays for the satellite's science instruments. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Shorter version of the above video.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The videos on this page show completed components of the flight mirror assemblies for the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM, pronounced “crism”), which is expected to launch from Japan in 2023.An X-ray Mirror Assembly (XMA) includes both a primary and a secondary mirror. Each is built using four quadrants that contain 203 nested aluminum mirror segments, for a total of 1,624 segments in each XMA. The mirrors will deflect incoming light into the satellite’s two instruments: an X-ray calorimeter spectrometer called Resolve, and an X-ray imager called Xtend.XRISM is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, along with ESA participation, to investigate the X-ray universe using high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center developed the XMAs for both instruments, as well as the Resolve detector and many of its subsystems. Related pages

XRISM team members pose with the XRISM Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert in a NASA Goddard clean room. From left to right, they are Bryan James, Mike Sampson, Tomomi Watanabe, Pete Barfknecht, Scott Porter, and Sinclair Douglas.Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA The XRISM Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert (CSI) allows X-ray light focused by an X-ray Mirror Assembly at the front of the spacecraft to reach the Resolve detector. In flight, the silver cap will not be present. Part of the CSI was built using flight-quaified spare parts from the ill-fated Hitomi mission, as can be seen by the engraved "ASTRO-H" — an earlier name for the mission.Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA A view of the opposite side of the XRISM Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert.Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA The underside of the XRISM Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert. The two silver cylindrical features are the first- and second-stage refrigeration devices, which will be immersed in liquid helium during the mission.Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA A member of the XRISM team carefully adjusts the wiring of the mission's Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert.Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA These electrical leads power high-performance magnets in refrigerators that work in stages to keep the Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert very cold: 50 millikelvin, or 0.05 K above absolute zero (–459.58 F, –273.1 C).Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA A XRISM team member bundles harnessing cables for the mission's Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert.Credit: Larry Gilbert/NASA Face-on view of a completed XRISM X-ray Mirror Assembly during tests in the X-ray beamline at NASA Goddard. Credit: Brian Williams/NASA A completed flight X-ray Mirror Assembly for XRISM awaits tests inside the 100-meter beamline facility at NASA Goddard.Credit: Bill Hrybyk/NASA Takashi Okajima, team lead for XRISM X-ray Mirror Assemblies, guides a completed flight mirror out of the X-ray beamline vacuum chamber for transport to another test facility.Credit: Bill Hrybyk/NASA XRISM team members Keisuke Tamura (left) and Takayuki Hayashi carefully pack a completed flight X-ray Mirror Assembly into a container for transport within NASA Goddard.Credit: Bill Hrybyk/NASA The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM, pronounced “crism”) is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, along with ESA participation, to investigate the X-ray universe using high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. XRISM features two instruments: Resolve, an X-ray calorimeter spectrometer, and Xtend, an X-ray imager.The first group of images, taken in November 2019, shows scientists and technicians in a clean room performing an electrical checkout of the XRISM Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert (CSI), which includes the Resolve detector. The remaining images were taken in December 2019 and show testing and calibration of a completed flight X-ray Mirror Assembly (XMA) at the 100-meter X-ray beamline facility at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Goddard developed the X-ray Mirror Assemblies, as well as the Resolve detector and many of its subsystems. XRISM is expected to launch in 2023. Related pages