Ikuyuki Mitsuishi

Graduate School of Science, Nagoya UniversityAssistant Professor*Profile is at the time of the award.

2018Inamori Research GrantsScience & Engineering

Research topics
Development of passive thermal control system for the first dedicated X-ray polarimetry observatory IXPE
Keyword
Summary
We can see a brilliant world in optical through our eyes,
while we know we are surrounded by “invisible” electromagnetic waves to
our eyes such as radio waves and X-rays.


Various kinds of electromagnetic waves can be seen also in space and we are
especially interested in the X-ray Universe.
Because an X-ray photon typically has an energy around 1000 times greater
than an optical photon,
X-ray observations are useful to study high-energy astrophysical objects
such as black holes, supernova remnants, and galaxy clusters.
However, because of atmospheric absorption, to detect X-rays from space, we
need to fly their instruments using balloons, rockets, and satellites.


We have been developing passive thermal control devices for X-ray space
missions.
Thermal environments in space are severe and thus such thermal control
systems are essential
to survive and realize the expected performances of their instruments based
on ground-based experiments.
Our passive thermal control devices are composed of approximately one micron
thick polyimide films, stainless meshes, and an aluminum frame and
several nanometer thick aluminum layers are formed on the films to achieve
proper thermo-optical properties.
We have rich experiments in designing, fabricating, and, evaluating the
devices and thus have been developing
for the first dedicated X-ray polarimetry observatory, IXPE which will be
launched in 2021.
We contribute to the mission through the development and finally open up a
new frontier in X-ray astrophysics.

Message from recipient

We are honored to receive such a grant and appreciate the support very much.
We received the grant just after making an arrangement with NASA to join the
IXPE mission and
a part of the funds to complete the development were not guaranteed yet.
Thus, the news to receive the grant encouraged our team to move forward.
The IXPE mission is planned to be launched in 2021 and
thus we will do everything we can do to send you interesting results.

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