Saturday, July 28, 2012

NASA "Scotch Tape-Type" X-Ray Telescope in Future?

NASA X-Ray Mirror Idea Inspired by Scotch Tape (No, Really!)

Date: 27 July 2012 Time: 05:13 PM ET


NASA scientist Maxim Markevitch is studying the feasibility of building a low-cost X-ray space telescope mirror from plastic tape and tightly rolling it like the Scotch tape in most homes and offices.
NASA scientist Maxim Markevitch is studying the feasibility of building a low-cost X-ray space telescope mirror from plastic tape and tightly rolling it like the Scotch tape in most homes and offices. The whiteboard drawing shows the shape of the X-ray mirror roll.
CREDIT: NASA/D. McCallum


Scotch tape, that transparent, sticky hero of offices everywhere, could be a NASA superstar as well.
The rolled-up adhesive tape is the inspiration behind a novel idea for a completely new kind of X-ray mirror for big telescopes in space. The concept, dreamed up by NASA scientist Maxim Markevitch, is this: Instead of building an expensive telescope mirror to capture high-energy "hard" X-rays in space, why not create a mirror from tightly rolled plastic tape at a much lower cost?
"I remember looking at a roll of Scotch tape and thinking, 'Was it possible to use the same design for capturing hard X-rays?'" Markevitch explained in a NASA statement. "I talked with a few people, and to my surprise, they didn't see any principal reasons why it couldn't be done."
Markevitch and a team of other X-ray space optics experts at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have begun testing materials that could be used to build a rolled mirror sensitive enough to collect hard X-rays from deep space.

MORE: http://www.space.com/16799-nasa-x-ray-mirror-scotch-tape.html

Source: Space.com

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