O'Dell, Stephen L., Aldcroft, Thomas L., Atkins, Carolyn, Button, Timothy W., Cotroneo, Vincenzo, Davis, William N., Doel, Peter, Feldman, Charlotte H., Freeman, Mark D., Gubarev, Mikhail V., Johnson-Wilke, Raegan L., Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Lillie, Charles F., Michette, Alan G., Ramsey, Brian D., Reid, Paul B., Rodriguez Sanmartin, Daniel, Saha, Timo T., Schwartz, Daniel A., Trolier-McKinstry, Susan E., Ulmer, Melville P., Wilke, Rudeger H. T., Willingale, Richard, and Zhang, William W. 2012. "Toward active x-ray telescopes II." Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, 8503 07. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.930090.
In the half century since the initial discovery of an astronomical (non-solar) x-ray source, the observation time required to achieve a given sensitivity has decreased by eight orders of magnitude. Largely responsible for this dramatic progress has been the refinement of the (grazing-incidence) focusing x-ray telescope, culminating with the exquisite subarcsecond imaging performance of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The future of x-ray astronomy relies upon the development of x-ray telescopes with larger aperture areas (2) and comparable or finer angular resolution () and comparable or finer angular resolution () and comparable or finer angular resolution (2) of lightweight (? 1 kg m-2 areal density) mirrors. Achieving precise and stable alignment and figure control may entail active (in-space adjustable) x-ray optics. This paper discusses relevant programmatic and technological issues and summarizes current progress toward active x-ray telescopes.
