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Design and verification of the electric control box of the low energy x-ray telescope onboard the Insight-HXMT

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Abstract

The Low Energy X-ray telescope (LE) is one of the main instruments of the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), the first Chinese X-ray astronomical satellite. The scientific objectives of LE focus on scanning and pointed observations of the X-ray sources in the soft X-ray band (0.7–13 keV). LE consists of three detector boxes (LEDs) and an electric control box (LEB). The LEB is composed of data handling unit, monitoring unit, and power distribution unit, with functions including data processing, communication, monitoring, power supply, and distribution. All the functions designed in the LEB were verified during the operation in orbit. To improve the efficiency of astronomical observations and reliability of LE, onboard data processing is designed in the LEB. The results of onboard data processing are immediately transmitted to the ground as important housekeeping data and are verified by comparing them with the processing results of the data transmitted to the ground. In the six years since launch, the LEB has performed well, operated smoothly, and met all expected requirements. The LEB has participated in numerous scientific observations, transmitted a large amount of scientific data, and obtained several observational results.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are not openly available due to the intellectual property belonging to the partners and are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The data has been stored in the server cluster in the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program on Space Science, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA040102). We are very grateful to Ms. Zhang Yi for her contribution to the project.

Funding

This project was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program on Space Science, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA040102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Physics, JiLin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Wei Li & Jingbi Lu

  2. Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wei Li, Yupeng Xu, Xiaofan Zhao, Yanji Yang, Weiwei Cui & Yong Chen

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  1. Wei Li
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  2. Jingbi Lu
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  3. Yupeng Xu
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  4. Xiaofan Zhao
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  5. Yanji Yang
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  6. Weiwei Cui
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  7. Yong Chen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Wei Li], [Yanji Yang] and [Xiaofan Zhao]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Wei Li] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jingbi Lu or Yong Chen.

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Li, W., Lu, J., Xu, Y. et al. Design and verification of the electric control box of the low energy x-ray telescope onboard the Insight-HXMT. Exp Astron 57, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-024-09929-9

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