Ivo Ferreira

TL;DR: The X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE) as discussed by the authors is a mission dedicated to Xray Astronomy which is in a competitive phase A as fourth medium size mission of ESA (M4).

TL;DR: The development of the X-ray optics for ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics), the selected second large class mission in the ESA Science Programme, is progressing further, in parallel with the payload preparation and the system level studies.

TL;DR: An overview of the current status of the telescope optics accommodation and technology development activities is provided in this article, where the optics technology chosen for ATHENA is the Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), which hinges on technology spin-in from the semiconductor industry and uses a modular approach to produce large effective area lightweight telescope optics with a good angular resolution.

TL;DR: Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) uses commercially available monocrystalline double-sided super-polished silicon wafers as a basis to produce mirrors that form lightweight and stiff high-resolution x-ray optics.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the status of the technology and of the mass production capabilities, show latest performance results, and discuss the next steps in the development of the system.