The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) project at JAXA officially started in 2018. Following the development of onboard components, the proto-flight test was conducted from 2021 to 2023 at JAXA Tsukuba Space Center. The spacecraft was launched from JAXA Tanegashima Space Center on September 7, 2023 (JST), and onboard components, including the science instruments, were activated during the in-orbit commissioning phase. Following the previous report in 2020, we report the spacecraft ground tests, the launch operation, in-orbit operations, and the status and plan of initial and subsequent guest observations.
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is an X-ray astronomy satellite successfully launched in September 2023. The satellite carries two X-ray telescopes with a focal length of 5.6 meters. One of these is Resolve, which consists of an X-ray Mirror Assembly (XMA) and a microcalorimeter array, providing a relatively narrow field of view (FoV) of 3.05 arcminutes squared. The other is Xtend, which consists of an XMA and an X-ray CCD camera, offering a large FoV of 38 arcminutes squared. Due to Resolve’s limited FoV, pointing accuracy is crucial for stable observation. The observation aimpoint, defined as the position on the focal plane where an on-axis target is located, was verified within a few arcseconds of the center of the array after the satellite’s boresight correction. It was also confirmed to be suitable, with no significant irreversible shift detected over approximately half a year. In the commissioning phase, all measurable requirements for pointing accuracy were confirmed to be met. The absolute pointing determination accuracies are less than 20 arcseconds for both instruments. The aimpoint shift and its temperature dependence were also assessed for each detector. The aimpoint shifts of both instruments in each observation have a good correlation on the X-axis, but not on the Y-axis in the detector coordinates. Resolve’s Y-axis shift clearly depends on the base panel temperature, on the order of a few arcseconds, which can be ignored for the absolute control accuracy and effective area. The sharp PSF core with an FWHM of approximately 10 arcseconds and arcsecond-scale relative determination accuracy enable Xtend to achieve good image reconstruction performance.
KEYWORDS: Space operations, Data processing, Photovoltaics, Equipment, Calibration, Source mask optimization, Information technology, Data archive systems, Satellites, X-rays
The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is an international X-ray observatory developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA), successfully launched in September 2023. Since the early stage of the project, the XRISM science operations team (SOT) was organized independently of the spacecraft bus system and mission instrument development teams, having prepared for the in-orbit science operations to maximize the scientific outputs. During about half year for the initial operation phase after launch, operations for the mission instruments were started, and the quick-look and the pipeline processes were carried out by SOT in order to check the functions of the instruments. After transition to the nominal operation phase, we started the target observations in the performance verification phase, whose short and long-term observation plans are considered by SOT, including planning the target of opportunity observations. The information on the observation modes of the mission instruments and the status of the data processing is maintained collectively in database synchronized between JAXA and NASA. We also performed the performance verification and optimization activities which provide the well-calibrated data, appropriate tools, and analysis methods for the users and established a help desk that supports the XRISM data analysis. The publicly solicited observation for the guest observer will be started from August or September 2024. These daily science operations are being carried out by dedicated scientists belonging to JAXA in collaboration with the other SOT members, the mission operations team and the instrument teams. This paper will introduce the ground system for the XRISM science operations and report on the activities of the SOT from the launch to today and plans for future science operations.
KEYWORDS: Global Positioning System, Clocks, Vacuum, Temperature metrology, Data conversion, Calibration, Satellites, Data modeling, Space operations, Physics
We report the results from the ground and on-orbit verification of the XRISM timing system when the satellite clock is not synchronized to the GPS time. XRISM carries a GPS receiver which synchronizes the main satellite clock to the GPS time but in a rare case that the satellite fails to receive the GPS signal, the clock runs freely and its frequency changes depending on its temperature. In this case, we correct the time drift considering the temperature dependency of the clock frequency measured in advance. To confirm that the accuracy of the time assignment in the GPS unsynchronized mode satisfies the requirement (within a 350 us error in the absolute time, for the satellite bus system plus ground system), we have performed the ground and on-orbit tests. In the thermal vacuum test performed in 2022, we obtained the GPS unsynchronized mode data and the temperature versus clock frequency trend. Comparing the time values assigned to the data and the true GPS times when the data were obtained, we confirmed that the requirement was satisfied in the temperature condition of the thermal vacuum test. We also simulated the variation of the timing accuracy in the on-orbit temperature conditions, using the Hitomi on-orbit temperature data and the dependency of the timing error on the temperature gradient obtained in the thermal vacuum test. We found that the error remained within the requirement over ∼ 300000 s without any time calibration data. After the launch, we performed on-orbit tests in 2023 September and October as part of the bus system checkout. The temperature versus clock frequency trend was found to remain unchanged from that obtained in the thermal vacuum test and the observed time drift was consistent with that expected from the trend.
The XRISM is the newly born X-ray satellite led by JAXA and NASA in collaboration with ESA, aiming to perform high-resolution spectroscopy of many astronomical X-ray objects. In the era of multi-messenger astronomy, where observations are performed in various wavelengths and include neutrino and gravitational data, it is important for the observatories to assign precise time of photons. To achieve the science goals of the XRISM mission, an absolute timing accuracy of 1.0 ms is required for the Resolve. The timing system, including both onboard instruments and off-line data-processing tools, is designed to meet this requirement. Following the lessons of the previous X-ray mission of Hitomi, comprehensive list of items that affect the accuracy of the timing are listed together with the timing error budget. During the system design and verification phases on the ground, all elements are controlled and verified to be within the budgets at the component level. After the launch of the satellite on 7 September 2023, in the initial commissioning phase, the overall timing performance of the timing system is scheduled to be confirmed to satisfy the timing requirements using a millisecond pulsar. The XRISM spacecraft carries the GPS receiver and the timing system uses the GPS signals in the nominal operation mode. In this presentation, we summarize the detailed design of the timing system of the XRISM, and the results of the timing verification tests both on ground and in orbit in the nominal operation mode. Detailed results on the failure mode of the GPS receiver will be presented in another presentation.
We present the detector performance and early science results from GRBAlpha, a 1U CubeSat mission, which is a technological pathfinder to a future constellation of nanosatellites monitoring gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBAlpha was launched in March 2021 and operates on a 550 km altitude sun-synchronous orbit. The gamma-ray burst detector onboard GRBAlpha consists of a 75×75×5 mm CsI(Tl) scintillator, read out by a dual-channel multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) setup. It is sensitive in the ∼30−900 keV range. The main goal of GRBAlpha is the in-orbit demonstration of the detector concept, verification of the detector’s lifetime, and measurement of the background level on low-Earth orbit, including regions inside the outer Van Allen radiation belt and in the South Atlantic anomaly. GRBAlpha has already detected five, both long and short, GRBs and two bursts were detected within a time-span of only 8 hours, proving that nanosatellites can be used for routine detection of gamma-ray transients. For one GRB, we were able to obtain a high resolution spectrum and compare it with measurements from the Swift satellite. We find that, due to the variable background, the time fraction of about 67% of the low-Earth polar orbit is suitable for gamma-ray burst detection. One year after launch, the detector
Xappl is a software framework written in Python to build pre-pipelines for the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) scheduled to be launched in the Japanese fiscal year 2022. Xappl chains software tasks in the order specified in configuration files in the INI format, enabling us to reduce the telemetry data to First FITS Files, which originate datasets ready for analysis. Since the functionalities of Xappl are highly generalized, it is reusable for future missions. In this paper, we present the design of Xappl and report the developmental progress of the pre-pipeline for XRISM.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.