 Launch of the ROSAT inCape Canaveral,Florida. | |
| Names | ROSAT |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Space Telescope |
| Operator | DLR /NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 1990-049A |
| SATCATno. | 20638 |
| Website | www |
| Mission duration | 8 years and 8 months |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | 2,421 kilograms (5,337 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 21:48, 1 June 1990 (UTC) (1990-06-01T21:48:00Z) |
| Rocket | Delta II 6920-10 |
| Launch site | Cape CanaveralLC-17A |
| End of mission | |
| Deactivated | 12 February 1999 |
| Decay date | 23:00, 23 October 2011 (UTC) (2011-10-23T23:00:00Z) |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Eccentricity | 0 |
| Perigee altitude | 580 km (360 mi)[1] |
| Apogee altitude | 580 km (360 mi) |
| Inclination | 53° |
| Period | 96 min |
| Epoch | 1990-06-01 |
| Main | |
| Type | Wolter I |
| Diameter | 84 centimetres (33 in) |
| Focal length | 240 centimetres (94 in) |
| Wavelengths | 30-0.06 nm,X-rays andExtreme Ultraviolet |
| Resolution | 5arc-s at half energy width[1] |
| Instruments | |
| Position Sensitive Proportional Counter Wide Field Camera High Resolution Imager | |
ROSAT (short forRöntgensatellit; in German X-rays are called Röntgenstrahlen, in honour ofWilhelm Röntgen) was aGerman Aerospace Center-led satelliteX-ray telescope, with instruments built byWest Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was launched on 1 June 1990, on aDelta II rocket fromCape Canaveral, on what was initially designed as an 18-month mission, with provision for up to five years of operation. ROSAT operated for over eight years, finally shutting down on 12 February 1999.
In February 2011, it was reported that the 2,400 kg (5,291 lb) satellite was unlikely to burn up entirely while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere due to the large amount of ceramics and glass used in construction. Parts as heavy as 400 kg (882 lb) could impact the surface.[2] ROSAT eventuallyre-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 23 October 2011 over theBay of Bengal.[3]
The Roentgensatellit (ROSAT) was a joint German, U.S. and British X-ray astrophysics project.[4] ROSAT carried a German-built imaging X-ray Telescope (XRT) with three focal plane instruments: two German Position SensitiveProportional Counters (PSPC) and the US-supplied High Resolution Imager (HRI). The X-ray mirror assembly was agrazing incidence four-fold nestedWolter I telescope with an 84-cm diameter aperture and 240-cm focal length. The angular resolution was less than 5 arcsecond at half energy width (the "angle within which half of the electromagnetic radiation"[5] is focused). The XRT assembly was sensitive to X-rays between 0.1 and 2 keV (one thousandElectronvolt).
In addition, a British-supplied extreme ultraviolet (XUV) telescope, the Wide Field Camera (WFC), was coaligned with the XRT and covered the energy band from 0.042 to 0.21 keV (30 to 6 nm).
ROSAT's unique strengths were high spatial resolution, low-background, soft X-ray imaging for the study of the structure of low surface brightness features, and for low-resolution spectroscopy.
The ROSAT spacecraft was athree-axis stabilized satellite which can be used for pointed observations, forslewing between targets, and for performing scanning observations on great circles perpendicular to the plane of theecliptic. ROSAT was capable of fast slews (180 deg. in ~15 min.) which makes it possible to observe two targets on opposite hemispheres during each orbit. The pointing accuracy was 1 arcminute with stability less than 5 arcsec per sec and jitter radius of ~10 arcsec. Two CCD star sensors were used for optical position sensing of guide stars and attitude determination of the spacecraft. The post facto attitude determination accuracy was 6 arcsec.
The ROSAT mission was divided into two phases:
The main assembly was a German-built imaging X-ray Telescope (XRT) with three focal plane instruments: two German Position Sensitive Proportional Counters (PSPC) and the US-supplied High Resolution Imager (HRI). The X-ray mirror assembly was a grazing incidence four-fold nestedWolter I telescope with an 84 cm (33 in) diameter aperture and 240 cm (94 in) focal length. The angular resolution was less than 5 arcsec at half energy width. The XRT assembly was sensitive to X-rays between 0.1 and 2 keV.[4]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(September 2011) |
There are two Position Sensitive Proportional Counters (PSPC), PSPC-B and PSPC-C, mounted on a carousel within the focal plane turret of ROSAT. PSPC-C was intended to be the primary detector for the mission and was used for the bulk of the All-Sky Survey until it was destroyed during the AMCS glitch on 25 January 1991. After the glitch, PSPC-B was used for all further observations. Two more PSPCs(PSPC-A and PSPC-D) were mounted on ROSAT for ground calibration.[6]
Each PSPC is a thin-window gas counter. Each incoming X-ray photon produces an electron cloud whose position and charge are detected using two wire grids. The photon position is determined with an accuracy of about 120 micrometers. The electron cloud's charge corresponds to the photon energy,[7] with a nominal spectral bandpass 0.1-2.4 keV.
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(September 2011) |
The US-supplied High Resolution Imager used a crossed grid detector with a position accuracy to 25 micrometers.[8] The instrument was damaged by solar exposure on 20 September 1998.
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(September 2011) |
The Wide Field Camera (WFC) was a UK-supplied extreme ultraviolet (XUV) telescope co-aligned with the XRT and covered the wave band between 300 and 60angstroms (0.042 to 0.21 keV).[4]
ROSAT was originally planned to be launched on theSpace Shuttle but theChallenger disaster caused it to be moved to theDelta platform. This move made it impossible to recapture ROSAT with a Shuttle and bring it back to Earth.[citation needed]
Originally designed for a five-year mission, ROSAT continued in its extended mission for a further four years before equipment failure forced an end to the mission. For some months after this, ROSAT completed its very last observations before being finally switched off on 12 February 1999.[9]
On 25 April 1998, failure of the primarystar tracker on theX-ray Telescope led to pointing errors that in turn had caused solar overheating.[10] A contingency plan and the necessary software had already been developed to utilise an alternative star tracker attached to theWide Field Camera.
ROSAT was soon operational again, but with some restrictions to the effectiveness of its tracking and thus its control.[11] It was severely damaged on 20 September 1998 when areaction wheel in the spacecraft's Attitude Measuring and Control System reached its maximum rotational speed,[note 1] losing control of a slew, damaging the High Resolution Imager by exposure to the sun.[11] This failure was initially attributed to the difficulties of controlling the satellite under these difficult circumstances outside its initial design parameters.[11]
In 2008, NASA investigators were reported to have found that the ROSAT failure was linked to a cyber-intrusion atGoddard Space Flight Center.[12] The root of this allegation is a 1999 advisory report by Thomas Talleur, senior investigator for cyber-security at NASA.[12] This advisory[13] is reported to describe a series of attacks from Russia that reached computers in the X-ray Astrophysics Section (i.e. ROSAT's) atGoddard, and took control of computers used for the control of satellites, not just a passive "snooping" attack. The advisory stated:
"Hostile activities compromised [NASA] computer systems that directly and indirectly deal with the design, testing, and transferring of satellite package command-and-control codes."[13]
The advisory is further reported as claiming that the ROSAT incident was "coincident with the intrusion"[12] and that, "Operational characteristics and commanding of the ROSAT were sufficiently similar to other space assets to provide intruders with valuable information about how such platforms are commanded,".[12] Without public access to the advisory, it is obviously impossible to comment in detail. Even if it did describe a real intrusion, there is a plausible "no attack" explanation for ROSAT's failure, and the report is claimed to link the two incidents as no more than "coincident."[original research?] However, NASA officials in charge of the day-to-day operations of the ROSAT mission at Goddard, including GSFC Rosat Project Scientist Rob Petre, say definitively that no such incident occurred. Talleur's information appears to have come from one of his interns who exaggerated a hacking incident on an office computer not related to flight operations.[14]
IT security remains a significant issue for NASA. Other systems including theEarth Observing System have also been attacked.[15]
In 1990, the satellite was put in an orbit at an altitude of 580 km (360 mi) and inclination of 53°.[16] Due to atmospheric drag, the satellite slowly lost height until, in September 2011, the satellite was orbiting approximately 270 km (168 mi) above the Earth. On 23 October 2011 ROSAT re-entered the Earth's atmosphere sometime between 1:45 UTC and 2:15 UTC over theBay of Bengal, east of India. There was no confirmation if pieces of debris had reached the Earth's surface.[17][18][19]
eROSITA launched on board the Russian-GermanSpektr-RG space observatory in 2019.[20] It will provide an updated all-sky survey of the X-ray sky, extending the energy range to 10keV, increase the sensitivity by a factor of 25 and improve the spatial and spectral resolution.
Without warning one day, the ROSAT satellite turned, seemingly inexplicably, toward the sun. The move damaged a critical optical sensor, rendering the satellite useless in its mission of making X-ray and ultraviolet images of deep space.
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