University of Iowa grad student lands NASA grant to build smaller X-ray telescope for deep-space navigation

IOWA CITY — When NASA in the summer of 2017 launched its Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER, telescope toward the International Space Station, Jacob Payne was an undergraduate at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Studying aerospace engineering at the time, Payne found NICER’s research into the physics of neutron stars — or “pulsars” — especially interesting for the way they emit light. Like a lighthouse beacon, pulsars spin, emitting X-ray radiation and allowing the NICER X-ray telescope to observe their structure, dynamics, and energetics.

Among its scientific findings, NICER demonstrated how millisecond pulsars could be used as navigational beacons for deep-space exploration.

“It was the first time that there was a demonstration of this kind of natural GPS using X-ray light coming from pulsars,” Payne said. “It was super cool to see that this concept could work.”

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‘Bolt a refrigerator’

Eight years, three states, and two jobs later, Payne — now a University of Iowa graduate research assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy — has won a NASA award to design and prototype a more compact, lightweight version of the NICER.

“I'm trying to turn it into a bit more of a grounded reality and make it a bit more possible or functional to implement,” Payne said. “The NICER telescope is like refrigerator sized; we want to build a smaller telescope.”

One, he said, that scientists could attach to their spacecraft for better and more accurate deep-space navigation.

“Instead of having to bolt a refrigerator onto something, if we can put a GPS antenna that's pretty small … that's the direction we're trying to go,” he said.

Payne — with guidance from UI Physics and Astronomy Associate Professor Casey DeRoo — applied for and landed a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology, or FINESST, award to develop the new X-ray telescope.

With the $150,000 award over three years, Payne hopes to support future space missions like the iconic Voyager, Cassini, or Juno — all of which had UI connections and involved UI-backed science.

“If we want to add a tool to any of those missions, we want to add the smallest possible thing,” he said. “Those missions are trying to do as much science as possible, and this tool would be in support of that.”

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‘Pretty unique infrastructure’

Payne’s research is multifaceted — looking to innovate and revolutionize space navigation by first answering a more traditional astronomy question, “What exactly are these stars actually emitting?”

“What is the light like from a pulsar?” Payne said. “If we can look at that, then we could build a telescope specifically to amplify the kind of light emitted from these kinds of stars."

Step two, he said, will use lab-based trial-and-error methods involving glass-melting and mirror-making.

“We're trying to improve the figure of our mirrors so they are very efficient and don't scatter any light — so we're collecting as much light as possible,” he said. “Then we're also studying the kinds of coatings that we put on them.”

The goal, he said, is to build more compact telescopes.

“This is possible really only because of the engineering support that we have at Iowa, which is pretty unique for a university in terms of space flight expertise,” Associate Professor DeRoo told The Gazette. “Developing technology is one thing, but thinking about how we make an actual thing — a telescope that you not only have optics for, but that you mount and hold and make sure is OK and qualified for space — that's something that not a lot of universities are well equipped to do.

“We have pretty unique infrastructure here at Iowa.”

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Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com