Engineers from the University’s Space Research Centre have completed the structural and thermal model for the UK’s latest X-ray telescope, the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), destined for space aboard the SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) probe when it launches at the end of 2024. The model, which has now been delivered to Airbus in Spain for integration and testing within the prototype satellite system, is not the so-called flight model—but will help engineers understand the extreme requirements for the final design.

Specialists will subject the prototype to the significant vibrations, shocks and G-forces experienced during launch of the spacecraft, as well as the extreme temperatures it must operate at in space below -150oC. The SXI consortium is led by the University of Leicester in collaboration with UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL MSSL), the Open University and European partners.

“It is the first time you go from conceptual design in computer models to a real object in metal. I shouldn’t have worried. It is a testament to the skill of our engineering and manufacturing team that what is a complex piece of kit works as predicted.” UCL MSSL is responsible for building the electronics that operate the SXI detectors and retrieve the signals that produce X-ray images of the space around the Earth.

“The STM testing is always a slightly nervous time, especially when you see videos of how much the instrument is shaken during testing! Dr. Steven Sembay, Principal Investigator (PI) for the SXI instrument, based at the University of Leicester, said:

SMILE is the first joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) from conceptual design to operations, and will study the continuous stream of charged particles emitted by our Sun. The UK Space Agency has committed £10.5 million in funding for UK leadership roles on SMILE, including the SXI instrument. The compact X-ray telescope is the only European instrument planned for the mission.

The highly variable stream of high energy particles, called the solar wind, impacts on the Earth’s magnetic field. At times of high intensity this stream can be a hazard to space-based instrumentation or even, in rare cases, ground-based electrical systems. Professor Graziella Branduardi-Raymont of UCL MSSL, European Co-Principal Investigator for the mission, said: “One of the most interesting aspects of SMILE SXI is the fact that we are using technology so far applied for looking outwards to X-ray sources in the far Universe to study how our own Earth responds to the impact of the Sun’s activity.”

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