For HERO (High Energy Replicated Optics)

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Launch site:Fort Sumner Municipal Airport, New Mexico, US  
Launch team: National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF)
Balloon: Open balloon (zero pressure)
Volume: Raven - 39.570.000 cu ft - 0.8 Mil.
Serial number: -
Flight identification number: 489N
Campaign: - 
Payload weight: -
Gondola weight: -
Overall weight: -

   

HERO (High Energy Replicated Optics)

Responsable institution:  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Principal Investigator:  Dr. Brian Ramsey

The instrument, is the first one aimed to obtain focused images of astronomical X-ray sources at hard X-ray energies (20–45 keV).

The key component (the hard X-ray optics) are full-shell electroformed-nickel-replicated (ENR) mirrors coated with iridium to enhance high-energy reflectivity. As the critical grazing angle for reflection varies approximately inversely with energy, these mirrors employ smaller angles than their low-energy counterparts and consequently have smaller diameters and collecting areas per shell. The mirrors have a 6 meter focal length.

To exploit the full potential of the HERO optics necessitates a balloon gondola that can provide commensurate pointing accuracy, stability, and pointing knowledge. The HERO gondola utilizes a coarse aspect system for slewing based on a differential global positioning system (GPS) and a fine inertial-mode pointing system that uses a novel day/night aspect camera system to update onboard gyroscopes.