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ESA : Athena X-Ray Telescope : 2035 by Star One on 27 Jun, 2014 11:59
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Europe has initiated the process that should lead to the biggest X-ray space telescope ever built.
Dubbed Athena, the satellite will be some 12m in length and weigh about five tonnes when launched in 2028.
The European Space Agency's (Esa) Science Programme Committee selected the project at a meeting in Toulouse.
Design work now will confirm the technologies and industrial capability needed to construct the mission, which is costed at over one billion euros.
"It's a tremendously exciting moment for the team; it's not every day you have a billion-euro decision go in your favour," said Prof Paul Nandra, the chairman of the Athena Coordination Group.
"We've just got to build it and get it up there, and as long as we do our job right, there's nothing that should stop that," he told BBC News.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28053831
It ponders how this maybe launched as Ariane 5 may not be in service by then and uncertainty surrounds the definition of Ariane 6. -
#1 by woods170 on 27 Jun, 2014 13:02
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You seem to be forgetting that ESA is actually not obliged to launch this science mission on an ESA launch vehicle. Several ESA science missions lifted off (even in recent years) not on Ariane but on Russian and even US launchers.QuoteEurope has initiated the process that should lead to the biggest X-ray space telescope ever built.
Dubbed Athena, the satellite will be some 12m in length and weigh about five tonnes when launched in 2028.
The European Space Agency's (Esa) Science Programme Committee selected the project at a meeting in Toulouse.
Design work now will confirm the technologies and industrial capability needed to construct the mission, which is costed at over one billion euros.
"It's a tremendously exciting moment for the team; it's not every day you have a billion-euro decision go in your favour," said Prof Paul Nandra, the chairman of the Athena Coordination Group.
"We've just got to build it and get it up there, and as long as we do our job right, there's nothing that should stop that," he told BBC News.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28053831
It ponders how this maybe launched as Ariane 5 may not be in service by then and uncertainty surrounds the definition of Ariane 6.
Put simply: this mission being capable of being launched on Ariane 6 or not is a non-issue. -
#2 by bolun on 27 Jun, 2014 13:14
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Athena to study the hot and energetic Universe
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Athena_to_study_the_hot_and_energetic_UniverseQuoteESA has selected the Athena advanced telescope for high-energy astrophysics as its second ‘Large-class’ science mission.
The observatory will study the hot and energetic Universe and takes the ‘L2’ slot in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–25 plan, with a launch foreseen in 2028.QuoteNow officially selected for L2, Athena now moves into a study phase. Once the mission design and costing have been completed, it will eventually be proposed for ‘adoption’ in around 2019, before the start of construction.
After launch, Athena will travel to its operational orbit around the gravitationally semi-stable location in space some 1.5 million kilometres beyond Earth as seen from the Sun – a position coincidentally known as L2. ESA’s Herschel, Planck and Gaia missions have also used L2 orbits. -
#3 by Nomadd on 27 Jun, 2014 13:19
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I notice they never mention an Atlas 552. Is there some reason that combination isn't practical?
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#4 by Star One on 27 Jun, 2014 13:23
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You seem to be forgetting that ESA is actually not obliged to launch this science mission on an ESA launch vehicle. Several ESA science missions lifted off (even in recent years) not on Ariane but on Russian and even US launchers.QuoteEurope has initiated the process that should lead to the biggest X-ray space telescope ever built.
Dubbed Athena, the satellite will be some 12m in length and weigh about five tonnes when launched in 2028.
The European Space Agency's (Esa) Science Programme Committee selected the project at a meeting in Toulouse.
Design work now will confirm the technologies and industrial capability needed to construct the mission, which is costed at over one billion euros.
"It's a tremendously exciting moment for the team; it's not every day you have a billion-euro decision go in your favour," said Prof Paul Nandra, the chairman of the Athena Coordination Group.
"We've just got to build it and get it up there, and as long as we do our job right, there's nothing that should stop that," he told BBC News.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28053831
It ponders how this maybe launched as Ariane 5 may not be in service by then and uncertainty surrounds the definition of Ariane 6.
Put simply: this mission being capable of being launched on Ariane 6 or not is a non-issue.
I was unaware of this.
Could a Proton or by then Angara do the job? -
#5 by simonbp on 27 Jun, 2014 13:26
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I notice they never mention an Atlas 552. Is there some reason that combination isn't practical?
It's not clear if Atlas V (in its current form) will still be flying three years from now, let alone fourteen years from now... -
#6 by baldusi on 27 Jun, 2014 16:55
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I notice they never mention an Atlas 552. Is there some reason that combination isn't practical?
Atlas 552 is optimized for LEO, all this missions are usually L2 or at least some form of high orbit. I can't think of any current mission that might actually need a 552. -
#7 by Burninate on 27 Jun, 2014 22:18
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http://userpages.irap.omp.eu/~dbarret/ATHENA/The_Athena_Mission_Proposal.pdf
http://athena2013.irap.omp.eu/PRESENTATIONS/ap_presentation_static_final.pdf
I will repeat my usual comment on these sorts of things. I have become convinced that for most astronomical observatories, building a bunch of duplicate units, while it may raise overall mission price slightly, is essential to maximizing return on investment and mitigating risk. Most of the cost is in tooling, R&D, testing - sunk into the capability to build this sort of instrument; Only building one is generally a bit of a waste.
ATHENA has a *long* heritage, beginning with Constellation-X and Xeus in 2001. A 27 year development cycle, unless it gets delayed or merged / demerged once again. I wouldn't want to work on such a project without tenure. -
#8 by Alpha_Centauri on 28 Jun, 2014 10:37
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You seem to be forgetting that ESA is actually not obliged to launch this science mission on an ESA launch vehicle. Several ESA science missions lifted off (even in recent years) not on Ariane but on Russian and even US launchers.
Put simply: this mission being capable of being launched on Ariane 6 or not is a non-issue.
There is a big difference between ESA preferring to launch missions on foreign rockets due to the cost of A5, and not having a choice but to use a foreign partner. Currently ESA usually selects a European backup in case things go wrong, even with Euro-Soyuz.
Not being able to launch a payload Europe will be investing a lot of money in will be politically difficult. -
#9 by bolun on 06 Feb, 2019 20:48
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Athena mirror module
This ‘mirror module’ – formed of 140 industrial silicon mirror plates, stacked together by a sophisticated robotic system – is destined to form part of the optical system of ESA’s Athena X-ray observatory.
Due to launch in 2031, Athena will probe 10 to 100 times deeper into the cosmos than previous X-ray missions, to observe the very hottest, high-energy celestial objects. To achieve this the mission requires entirely new X-ray optics technology.
Energetic X-rays don’t behave like typical light waves: they don’t reflect in a standard mirror. Instead they can only be reflected at shallow angles, like stones skimming along water. So multiple mirrors must be stacked together to focus them: ESA’s 1999-launched XMM-Newton has three sets of 58 gold-plated nickel mirrors, each nestled inside one another. But to see further, Athena needs tens of thousands of densely-packed mirror plates.
A new technology had to be invented: ‘silicon pore optics’, based on stacking together mirror plates made from industrial silicon wafers, which are normally used to manufacture silicon chips.
It was developed at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, and patented by ESA, invented by an ESA staff member with the founder of cosine Research, the Dutch company leading an European consortium developing Athena’s optics.
The technology was refined through a series of ESA R&D projects, and all process steps have been demonstrated to be suitable for industrial production. The wafers have grooves cut into them, leaving stiffening ribs to form the ‘pores’ the X-rays will pass through. They are given a slight curvature, tapering towards a desired point so the complete flight mirror can focus X-ray images.
https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/02/Athena_mirror_module
Image credit: ESA/cosine Research
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#10 by Steven Pietrobon on 07 Feb, 2019 04:46
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ATHENA has a *long* heritage, beginning with Constellation-X and Xeus in 2001. A 27 year development cycle, unless it gets delayed or merged / demerged once again. I wouldn't want to work on such a project without tenure.
Now launching in 2031, giving it a 30 year development cycle! -
#11 by bolun on 03 May, 2022 16:48
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https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Athena_factsheetQuote
Status: Athena was selected as the second large (‘L-class’) mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015–25 plan on 27 June 2014. The mission is now in the study phase; once the mission design and costing have been completed, it will be proposed for ‘adoption’ in June 2023, after which construction can begin.
Planned launch: 2035QuoteCollaboration with LISA: There is the exciting and unique opportunity for Athena to collaborate with ESA’s forthcoming gravitational-wave observatory, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), planned for launch in 2037
While Athena and LISA are individually outstanding, the additional science that the two missions will achieve by operating concurrently and gathering coordinated observations (so-called ‘multi-messenger’ astronomy) will provide further breakthroughs and address fundamental questions in modern astrophysics. Together, the duo will unveil new clues about distant and merging black holes, bright quasars in active galaxies, rapid jets believed to be produced around spinning black holes, the cosmic distance scale, and the speed of gravity. These synergies are addressed in this white paper from the Athena-LISA Synergy Working Group.
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#12 by ttle2 on 04 May, 2022 21:13
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Apparently it has turned out that reaching the 5" resolution goal is very difficult and the science study team has been considering how/if the science objectives can be met if only 10" resolution can be achieved. I believe the study should have finished already (or should finish very soon), but I don't know anything about the results.
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#13 by VSECOTSPE on 05 May, 2022 03:33
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Athena mirror module
This ‘mirror module’ – formed of 140 industrial silicon mirror plates, stacked together by a sophisticated robotic system – is destined to form part of the optical system of ESA’s Athena X-ray observatory.
Impressive approach. Hope it works.
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#14 by Yiosie on 30 Jul, 2022 20:59
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ESA scaling back design of X-ray astronomy mission [dated Jul. 30]Quote from: SpaceNews
Faced within increasing costs, the European Space Agency is looking for ways to revise the design of a large X-ray space telescope, an effort that could have implications for NASA’s own astrophysics programs.
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At the time of selection, each mission has an estimated cost to ESA of 1.05 billion euros ($1.07 billion), or about 1.17 billion euros today, said Paul McNamara, ESA astronomy and astrophysics coordinator, during a July 21 presentation to NASA’s astronomy and astrophysics committee. By 2019, though, the combined price of Athena and LISA had grown to 2.5 billion euros.
As of May 2022, LISA has an estimated cost of 1.5 billion euros, but Athena had grown to 1.9 billion euros. This came even as Athena was making good technical progress, he said, such as in development of new lightweight mirror technology.
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McNamara said there are no plans by ESA to cancel Athena, but the agency is instead considering a “rescoped” mission of some kind with a cost of no more than 1.3 billion euros. “We have to rescope the Athena mission to significantly reduce its cost.”
That rescoped mission, currently dubbed NewAthena, would likely involve scaling back its science. “At the moment, it does not appear feasible that we can reach the 1.3 [billion euro] target, the cost to completion for ESA, while maintaining the full science objectives of the mission,” he said.
That effort will involve potential changes to its instrument configuration as well as creation of a science “redefinition” team to reconsider science objectives. The goal will be to develop a revised concept, called a minimum disrupted mission, that will cost ESA no more than 1.3 billion euros but still perform science expected of a flagship-class mission.
What that means for the schedule of Athena is unclear. McNamara said ESA is preparing to “adopt,” or move into the next phase of development, either Athena or LISA in November 2023. The other will be adopted in 2024 or 2025.
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A redesign of Athena could also affect NASA. The agency is contributing hardware for one instrument on Athena as well as other resources, such as testing and calibration facilities for its X-ray mirror. McNamara said ESA officials have been in contact with their NASA counterparts about plans for Athena.
He added ESA would not rule out increased cooperation with NASA as a means of reducing ESA’s cost for the revised Athena mission. “No door is closed,” he said. “We’re looking for any way we can try to get the best mission possible within the programmatic constraints.” -
#15 by bolun on 09 Nov, 2023 20:21
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https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Final_three_for_ESA_s_next_medium_science_missionQuote
New way forward for future large (L-class) mission: NewAthena
ESA’s Science Programme Committee has also today endorsed a rescoped version of Athena, which was selected as a large mission in 2014. Designed to capture X-ray light to study the hot and energetic Universe, the way forward for 'NewAthena' is expected to transform our knowledge in almost every corner of modern astrophysics.
ESA, the science community, instrument teams, and international partners have worked hard to come up with a simplified mission design that meets the cost requirements set by the Science Programme Committee but nevertheless delivers scientific excellence and ambition in line with that expected of a flagship L-class mission.
The adoption of NewAthena is expected in 2027, with launch planned for 2037.