The Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE): technical overview II

O'Dell, Stephen L.; Attinà, Primo; Baldini, Luca; Barbanera, Mattia; Baumgartner, Wayne H.; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bladt, Jeff; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Brez, Alessandro; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Citraro, Saverio; Costa, Enrico; Deininger, William D.; Del Monte, Ettore; Dietz, Kurtis L.; Di Lalla, Niccolò; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Elsner, Ronald F.; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; Guy, Larry; Kalinowski, William; Kaspi, Victoria M.; Kelley, Anthony R.; Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey J.; Latronico, Luca; Lefevre, Carlo; Lucchesi, Leonardo; Manfreda, Alberto; Marshall, Herman L.; Masciarelli, James; Matt, Giorgio; Minuti, Massimo; Muleri, Fabio; Nasimi, Hikmat; Nuti, Alessio; Orsini, Leonardo; Osborne, Darren; Perri, Matteo; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Peterson, Colin; Pinchera, Michele; Puccetti, Simonetta; Ramsey, Brian D.; Ratheesh, Ajay; Romani, Roger W.; Santoli, Francesco; Sciortino, Andrea; Sgrò, Carmelo; Smith, Brian T.; Spandre, Gloria; Soffitta, Paolo; Tennant, Allyn F.; Tobia, Antonino; Trois, Alessio; Wedmore, Jeffrey; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Xie, Fei; Zanetti, Francesco; Alexander, Cheryl D.; Allen, D Z.; Amici, Fabrizio; Antoniak, Spencer; Bonino, Raffaella; Borotto, Fabio; Breeding, Shawn P.; Brienza, Daniele; Bygott, H K.; Caporale, Ciro; Cardelli, Claudia; Ceccanti, Marco; Centrone, Mauro; Di Persio, Giuseppe; Evangelista, Yuri; Ferrie, Mackenzie; Footdale, Joseph; Forsyth, Brent; Foster, Michelle; Gunji, Shuichi; Gurnee, Eli; Hibbard, Grant; Johnson, Sandra R.; Kelly, Eric; Kilaru, Kiranmayee; La Monaca, Fabio; Le Roy, Shelley; Loffredo, Pasqualino; Magazzu, Guido; Marengo, Marco; Marrocchesi, Alessandra; Massaro, Francesco; Mccracken, Jeff; Mceachen, Michael; Mereu, Paolo; Mitchell, Scott; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Morbidini, Alfredo; Mosti, Federico; Negro, Michela; Oppedisano, Chiara; Pacheco, Richard; Paggi, Alessandro; Pavelitz, Steven D.; Pentz, Christina; Piazzola, Raffaele; Porter, Brad; Profeti, Alessandro; Ranganathan, Jaganathan; Rankin, John; Root, Noah; Rubini, Alda; Ruswick, Stephanie; Sanchez, Javier; Scalise, Emanuele; Schindhelm, Sarah; Speegle, Chet O.; Tamagawa, Toru; Tardiola, Marcello; Walden, Amy L.; Weddendorf, Bruce; Welch, David

doi:10.1117/12.2530646

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) will add polarization to the properties (time, energy, and position) observed in x-ray astronomy. A NASA Astrophysics Small Explorer (SMEX) in partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), IXPE will measure the 2–8-keV polarization of a few dozen sources during the first 2 years following its 2021 launch. The IXPE Observatory includes three identical x-ray telescopes, each comprising a 4-m-focal-length (grazingincidence) mirror module assembly (MMA) and a polarization-sensitive (imaging) detector unit (DU), separated by a deployable optical bench. The Observatory’s Spacecraft provides typical subsystems (mechanical, structural, thermal, power, electrical, telecommunications, etc.), an attitude determination and control subsystem for 3-axis stabilized pointing, and a command and data handling subsystem communicating with the science instrument and the Spacecraft subsystems.