Challenges in X-ray Telescope Technology: Does A Major X-ray Mirrors Have a Future in the US?
Melville Ulmer
The current and future suite of X-ray observatories has mainly one gap: that is a mission with Chandra Observatory-like angular resolution with more than 10 times the area of Chandra. In principle we know how to build such an observatory for 10x the cost of Chandra. Chandra, however, cost 2 billion USD! Therefore several groups in the US have embarked on technology development to enable a 10x the area of Chandra observatory at an affordable cost. I give an overview of the problems, and how in concept the problem can be solved. Then I describe the technologies being pursed. I argue my group is pursuing the most viable approaches. I finish by showing ours is also the best to consider for 16-m like optic UV missions.