Constellation X-Ray Mission: recent developments for mission concept and technology development

Harvey Tananbaum; Nicholas E. White; Jay A. Bookbinder; Robert Petre; Kimberly Weaver

doi:10.1117/12.550481

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11 October 2004 Constellation X-Ray Mission: recent developments for mission concept and technology development

Harvey Tananbaum, Nicholas E. White, Jay A. Bookbinder, Robert Petre, Kimberly Weaver

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Proceedings Volume 5488, UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.550481
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Constellation X-ray Mission is a high-throughput X-ray facility emphasizing observations at high spectral resolution (R ~ 300-3000) while covering a broad energy band (0.25-60 keV). The mission is intended to achieve a factor of 25-100 increase in sensitivity over current high resolution X-ray spectroscopy missions. Constellation-X is the X-ray astronomy equivalent of the Keck and the VLT, complementing the high spatial resolution capabilities of Changra. Constellation-X achieves its high-throughput and reduces mission risk by dividing the collecting area across four separate spacecraft launched two at a time into an L2 orbit. We describe the overall mission concept and also present a brief overview of alternate concepts which are under consideration. We discuss recent progress on the key technologies, including: lightweight, high-throughput X-ray optics, micro-caloriment spectrometer arrays, low-power and low-weight CCD arrays, lightweight gratings, multilayer coatings to enhance the hard X-ray performance of X-ray optics, and hard X-ray detectors.

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Harvey Tananbaum, Nicholas E. White, Jay A. Bookbinder, Robert Petre, and Kimberly Weaver "Constellation X-Ray Mission: recent developments for mission concept and technology development", Proc. SPIE 5488, UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems, (11 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.550481

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