Electrical ground support equipment for the ESA NewAthena Wide Field Imager

Francisco Javier Veredas, Sebastian Albrecht, Robert Andritschke, Günter Hauser, Andreas Lederhuber, Marko Mecina, Kirpal Nandra, Roland Ottensamer, Hermine Schnetler

Publications: Contribution to bookContribution to proceedingsPeer Reviewed

Abstract

The Wide Field Imager (WFI) is one of the two instruments of the X-ray Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics (NewAthena) mission selected by ESA. The WFI satellite telescope uses a camera fitted with DEPFET sensors, instrument electronics to control the camera and readout the sensors, as well as additional electronic units to communicate with the spacecraft on-board-computer. WFI successfully passed the instrument system requirement review (I-SRR) in March 2022. In 2023, NewAthena went through a redefinition phase in order to save cost, and on February 2024 the mission restarted again. Currently, a WFI Engineering Model (EM) consisting of the Camera Head Sub-System (CHS) and Detector Electronics Sub-System (DES) is being developed. A Structural and Thermal Model (STM) has also been created as an intermediate development step to gain design insights with respect to thermal and structural properties. The objective of these developments is to gain knowledge on the road to develop the WFI Flight Model (FM). Mechanical and environmental tests will be performed at the X4 and PUMA test facilities of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. In this paper, we present the electrical ground support equipment (EGSE) for WFI and in particular for these tests. The WFI EGSE consist of hardware and software to test the WFI instrument. It provides power control, temperature sensing, time synchronization, an interface to program FPGAs and microcontrollers, and the software necessary to control the instrument and acquire the science data. Dedicated telemetry and telecommand software tools have been developed to communicate via the SpaceWire interface with the WFI instrument. The software architecture and EGSE design trade-offs are also presented.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSpace Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024
Subtitle of host publicationUltraviolet to Gamma Ray
EditorsJan-Willem A. den Herder, Shouleh Nikzad, Kazuhiro Nakazawa
PublisherSPIE
Number of pages12
Volume13093
ISBN (Electronic)9781510675094
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Aug 2024
EventSpace Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray - Yokohama, Japan
Duration: 16 Jun 202421 Jun 2024

Publication series

SeriesProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume13093
ISSN0277-786X

Conference

ConferenceSpace Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityYokohama
Period16/06/2421/06/24

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 103003 Astronomy
  • 103004 Astrophysics
  • 103038 Space exploration

Keywords

  • astrophysics
  • EGSE
  • EM
  • ESA mission
  • NewAthena WFI
  • satellite electronics
  • satellite software
  • space instruments vacuum tests
  • SpaceWire
  • STM
  • X-ray Telescope

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Electrical ground support equipment for the ESA NewAthena Wide Field Imager'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this