The optical design of the Athena Mirror
R. Willingale, et al.
The manufacture and performance of the Athena X-ray mirror is of paramount importance to the success of the mission.
In order to provide a collecting area of ~2 m 2 at 1 keV an aperture of diameter ~3 m must be densely populated with grazing incidence X-ray optics.
To achieve an angular resolution of ~5 arc seconds these optics must be of extremely high precision and aligned to tight tolerances.
A large field of view of ~40 arc minutes diameter is possible using a combination of innovative technology and careful optical design.