(Updated August 99)
The Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA's newest space telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, will allow scientists from around the world to obtain unprecedented X-ray images and spectra of violent, high-temperature events and objects to help us better understand the structure and evolution of our universe.
It will also serve as a unique tool to study detailed physics in a unique laboratory -- the universe itself , one that cannot be replicated here on Earth.
Managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Chandra is a sophisticated, state-of-the-art instrument that represents a tremendous technological advance in X-ray astronomy.Did you know?
- The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. It has eight-times greater resolution and will be able to detect sources more than 20-times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope.
- The Chandra X-ray Observatory, with its Inertial Upper Stage and support equipment, is the largest and heaviest payload ever launched by the Space Shuttle.
- The Chandra X-ray Observatory's operating orbit takes it 200-times higher than the Hubble Space Telescope. During each orbit of the Earth, Chandra travels one-third of the way to the Moon.
- The Chandra X-ray Observatory's resolving power is , 0.5 arc-seconds -- equal to the ability to read the letters of a stop sign at a distance of 12 miles. Put another way, Chandra's resolving power is equivalent to the ability to read a 1-centimeter newspaper headline at the distance of a half-mile.
- If the State of Colorado were as smooth as the surface of the Chandra X-ray Observatory mirrors, Pike's Peak would be less than an inch tall.
- Another of NASA's incredible time machines, the Chandra X-ray Observatory will be able to study some quasars as they were 10 billion years ago.
- The Chandra X-ray Observatory will observe X-rays from clouds of gas so vast that it takes light more than five-million years to go from one side to the other.
- Although nothing can escape the incredible gravity of a black hole, not even light, the Chandra X-ray Observatory will be able to study particles up to the last millisecond before they are sucked inside.
- It took almost four centuries to advance from Galileo's first telescope to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope — an increase in observing power of about a half-billion times. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is about one-billion times more powerful than the first X-ray telescope, and we have made that leap in slightly more than three decades.
Chandra X-ray Observatory Mission Duration
|Chandra science mission||Approx. 5 yrs|
|Orbital Activation & Checkout period||Approx. 2 mos|
|Altitude at apogee||86,487 sm|
|Altitude at perigee||5,999 sm|
|Orbital period||64 hrs|
|Observing time per orbital period||Up to 55 hrs|
|Length , (Sun shade open)||45.3'|
|Length , (Sun shade closed||38.7'|
|Width , (Solar arrays deployed)||64.0'|
|Width , (Solar arrays stowed)||14.0'|
|Total at launch||12,930 lbs|
Integral Propulsion System
|Liquid Apogee Engines||4 engines (Only 2 used at a time)|
|Thrust per engine||105 lbs|
3 panels each
|Power generated||2,350 watts|
|Electrical power storage||
|Antennas||2 low-gain antennas|
Shuttle Payload Interrogator
Deep Space Network
|Command link||2 kbs per second|
|Data downlink||32 kbs to 1024 kbs|
On-board Data Capture
High Resolution Mirror Assembly
4 sets of nested,
|Mirror Weight||2,093 lbs|
|Focal length||33 ft|
|Outer diameter||4 ft|
|Coating||600 angstroms of iridium|
Attitude Control & Pointing
|Inertial reference units||2|
|Aspect camera||1.40 deg x 1.40 deg fov|
|Charged Coupled Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS)|
|High Resolution Camera (HRC)|
|High Energy Transmission Grating (HETG)|
|Low Energy Transmission Grating (LETG)|
The Inertial Upper StageDimensions
|Stage 1 , Dry||2,566 lbs|
|Stage 1 , Propellant||19,621 lbs|
|Stage 1 - Total||22,187 lbs|
|Stage 2 , Dry||2,379 lbs|
|Stage 2 , Propellant||6,016 lbs|
|Stage 2 - Total||8,395 lbs|
|Total Inertial Upper Stage , At launch||30,582 lbs|
|Thrust , Stage 1||46,198 lbs, average|
|Burn Duration , Stage 1||125 seconds|
|Thrust , Stage 2||16,350 lbs, average|
|Burn Duration , Stage 2||117 seconds|
|Airborne Support Equipment||5,365 lbs|
|Total Support Equipment||6,650 lbs|
equipment at liftoff
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