Terry Gaetz's Home Page

* Terry Gaetz, Astrophysicist
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
60 Garden Sreet, Mail Stop 70
Cambridge, MA, 02138
(617) 496-7584,
(617) 495-7356 [FAX]
*

*

Chandra X-Ray Observatory

    *

    As part of the SAO/MST AXAF Mission Support Team, I contributed to reviews of the design and manufacture of the High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA) and Optical Bench portions of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO), and also to the alignment of the X-Ray mirrors. The HMRA consists of a nest of four pairs of Wolter Type-I paraboloid-hyperboloid X-Ray mirrors; it was designed and built by Eastman Kodak Company at Rochester, NY.

    The MST was also responsible for the ground calibration of the HRMA at the X-ray Calibration Facility (XRCF) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

    Currently I work on the calibration of the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) as part of the CXC Calibration group. Here is a schematic of the observatory. Some of our work on CXO mirror calibration is described here

    The ground calibration and the on-orbit calibration are being used to refine a high-fidelity raytrace model of the CXO performance.

    After two scrubbed launch attempts, Chandra was successfully launched 1999 July 23, 12:31AM EDT, as part of space shuttle mission STS-93.

    Here are some pictures of the CXO at various phases of assembly. (More pictures can be seen at the Chandra photo gallery.

    *

Contacts |  Contribute |  Dept. of Astronomy |  Director's Office |  Intranet |  Privacy |  Resources
Harvard Logo Smithsonian Logo   HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS  |   60 GARDEN STREET  |   CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138

 

DCSIMG