HiPeG: A high performance balloon gondola for fine angular resolution X-ray telescopes

A platform for balloon-borne hard X-ray experiments capable of tens of arcsec pointing accuracy is a necessary condition for the new generation of high angular resolution X-ray telescopes. We have designed a new multi-mission platform in which the attitude determination system is based upon a high p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAdvances in space research Vol. 37; no. 11; pp. 2103 - 2107
Main Authors Di Cocco, G., Basili, A., Franceschini, T., Landini, G., Malaguti, G., Palladino, G., Silvestri, S., Gizzi, L.A., Barbini, A., Galimberti, M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 2006
Subjects
Attitude control
Balloon-borne
Pointing precision
Star sensor
X-ray telescope
Star sensor
X-ray telescope
Attitude control
Balloon-borne
Pointing precision
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Summary:A platform for balloon-borne hard X-ray experiments capable of tens of arcsec pointing accuracy is a necessary condition for the new generation of high angular resolution X-ray telescopes. We have designed a new multi-mission platform in which the attitude determination system is based upon a high performance GPS and a star sensor equipped with a high-dynamic range CCD detector. The device is an autonomous and flexible system which, by means of efficient star identification and tracking algorithms, permits a fine dynamical pointing and reconstruction of the pointing trajectory down to the arcsec level. This paper presents specifications of the gondola and summarizes its characteristics which will be tested in a balloon flight scheduled in near future.
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ISSN:0273-1177
1879-1948
DOI:10.1016/j.asr.2005.06.029