News and Events

This report focuses on Hong Kong Universities (HKU)’s first science research satellite, a soft X-Ray telescope. It is the first to house novel lobster eye (LE) optics and was launched in July 2020. It has a wide field of view (FoV) of 4 square degrees. This promised to provide a great opportunity to observe high-energy astrophysical objects that emits X-ray in the 0.4keV -10keV energy range. This report provides a detailed description of: 1) The scientific, technological, and technical aspects of the mission; 2) the expected performance of the instruments of the scientific payload; 3) The actual elements and functions of the science payload from the spacecraft; 4) The basic operation of pointing and tracking the telescope and 5) The methods used to detect sources. This report presents the observed results from this telescope for selected Gamma Ray Bursts and Crab Nebulae and the problems encountered. In spite of the angular resolution and sensitivity being lower than anticipated useful lessons have been learned. This technology still holds great promise and we remain optimistic about the development of LE optics and its follow-up detector for the study of the high energy and transient universe.