Digital Sun Sensor from Redwire to Assist XRISM Spacecraft
Digital Sun Sensor from Redwire to Assist XRISM Spacecraft
A Digital Sun Sensor (DSS) system developed by Redwire will provide critical sun angle data for precise pointing of the XRISM spacecraft as it helps scientists discover and understand the role of X-ray sources in the universe.
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) will study cosmic extremes: the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity. With a Redwire sun sensor system onboard, the XRISM spacecraft will investigate the X-ray sky using high-resolution spectroscopy. XRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on Aug. 25, 2023.
How the Digital Sun Sensor Works
The Digital Sun Sensor system provides two axes of sun angle data and a Sun Presence indicator. The system consists of one DSS head and a processing electronics unit and is integrated with the attitude control electronics on the XRISM spacecraft for solar based attitude determination. Redwire also supplied a stimulator head and controller for spacecraft integration and test.
XRISM is a collaboration between NASA and JAXA, with ESA participation. The mission will help humanity learn more about extremely hot gas within clusters of galaxies, near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes in active galaxies, and other cosmic mysteries.
The XRISM payload consists of two instruments:
Resolve, a soft X-ray spectrometer, which combines a lightweight X-ray Mirror Assembly (XMA) paired with an X-ray calorimeter spectrometer, and provides non-dispersive 5-7 eV energy resolution in the 0.3-12 keV bandpass with a field of view of about 3 arcmin.
Xtend, a soft X-ray imager, is an array of four CCD detectors that extend the field of the observatory to 38 arcmin on a side over the energy range 0.4-13 keV, using an identical lightweight X-ray Mirror Assembly.
Redwire’s Digital Sun Sensor has enabled a variety of missions and spacecraft, including NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), IRIS, Parker Solar Probe, MESSENGER to Mercury, Magellan to Venus, STEREO, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, as well as multiple rover missions to Mars such as Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers A and B (Spirit & Opportunity), Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) and Mars 2020 (Perseverance). Redwire’s suite of sensors have also flown on New Horizons to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno to Jupiter, NASA’s Artemis I mission, SOHO, and many other game-changing missions.
(Source: Redwire news release. Images provided)