Custom Solutions
Space, science and industrial applications
Camera Subassemblies
Components for customised systems
Space, science and industrial applications
Components for customised systems
An advanced EM-CCD multi-sensor camera system for NASA’s Off-Plane Grating Rocket Experiment (OGRE) mission.A 6U CubeSat developed by a UK-based consortium to demonstrate the technology of laser-cooling atoms in space.
In 2022, XCAM delivered a state-of-the-art multi-sensor digital camera system to Pennsylvania State University as part of the NASA-funded OGRE sub-orbital sounding rocket mission. Built around electron-multiplying CCD (EM-CCD) technology, OGRECam incorporates many of XCAM’s specialist capabilities, including complex low-noise detector drive electronics, multi-detector focal plane design, in-vacuum operation, and cryogenic cooling. The result is an exceptionally low-noise, high-sensitivity imaging system optimised for advanced X-ray spectroscopy.
The OGRE mission aims to advance the technology readiness level (TRL) of three next-generation space technologies that will underpin future X-ray astronomy missions:
These technologies will fly aboard a NASA Black Brant IX sounding rocket in 2025, capturing a high-resolution X-ray spectrum of the Capella star system. OGRE will serve as a critical proving ground for instrumentation that may shape the successors to NASA’s Chandra Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton.
XCAM supplied the complete EM-CCD camera system, OGRECam, comprising:
The system integrates a wide range of XCAM’s key technologies, enabling unmatched low-noise performance for the OGRE X-ray spectroscopy application.
OGRECam System Overview
The complete OGRE payload includes:
The spectrometer achieves a 3.5 m focal length and fits within the payload bay of a NASA Black Brant IX – one of the longest payloads ever launched on this rocket type.
After launch from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, the experiment will collect approximately 300 seconds of high-quality X-ray data before returning to Earth for recovery.
CASPA project, University of Birmingham
The Electronics Subsystem
C3D3 Imager Controller
OGRECam provides a highly capable, low-noise X-ray imaging system that:
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2022: article no. 1219115
SPIE , Space Telescopes + Instrumentation 2018: article no. 106996H
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XCAM Scientific
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Round Spinney Industrial Estate
Northampton, NN3 8RF, UK
