The mission and on-board instruments
XIPE is designed to fit within a VEGA launcher. A sketch is shown in the figure below.
From left to right it is shown: (a) XIPE in the VEGA launcher fairing, (b) the complete XIPE spacecraft with fixed solar panels, (c) the three main elements of the XIPE spacecraft described below, (d) the telescope supporting structure together with the service module and the payload
(credits INAF-IAPS)
XIPE payload
The XIPE scientific payload is divided in three main parts: the Mirror Assembly (MA), the Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) and the Control Electronics (CE). These are sketched in the figure below.
XIPE scientific payload
(credits INAF-IAPS)
The mirror assembly
The Mirror Assembly comprises three identical Telescope Units (TUs), based on the long-heritage grazing-incidence reflection.
XIPE mirror assembly
(credits INAF-IAPS)
The focal plane assembly
XIPE detectors are photoelectric polarimeters based on the Gas Pixel Detector design (Costa, E. et al. (2001) Nature 411,662; Bellazzini, R., et al. (2006), NIM Phys. Res. A 566, 552; Bellazzini, R., et al. (2007), NIM Phys.Res. A 579, 853).
XIPE focal plane assembly
(credits INAF-IAPS)