Loes Crama

The European Space Agency (ESA) is leading the development of NewAthena (the New Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics), an X-ray observatory designed to explore cosmic phenomena such as black holes, neutron stars, and galaxy clusters. The telescope utilizes a 12-meter focal length mirror assembly composed of 600 mirror modules. These modules are manufactured using Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), a technology that transforms silicon wafers into precision mirror plates. In total, the assembly involves approximately 2,400 mirror stacks and 100,000 individual plates. Each component must be tracked through a series of physical, mechanical, and chemical processes at various locations throughout Europe. At each step in this production chain, data is collected to assess the state and quality of the components. This includes logging components' status, recording geometric specifications and process parameters, and maintaining a complete history of the production chain. This talk will explore how Django serves as the software backbone for managing this data. It presents how tracking systems for scientists and engineers are built using Django’s standard core tooling, as well as additional packages where needed. In doing so, this talk demonstrates how a general-purpose web framework can be adapted to support a scientific and engineering environment within a space mission context.