AXTAR: Mission design concept
The Advanced X-ray Timing Array (AXTAR) is a mission concept for X-ray timing of compact objects that combines very large collecting area, broadband spectral coverage, high time resolution, highly flexible scheduling, and an ability to respond promptly to time-critical targets of opportunity. It is...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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SPIE
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61642 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8804-8946 |
| _version_ | 1811085779403800576 |
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| author | Ray, Paul S. Chakrabarty, Deepto Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A. Philips, Bernard F. Wood, Kent S. Wolff, Michael T. Gwon, Chul S. Strohmayer, Tod E. Baysinger, Michael Briggs, Michael S. Capizzo, Peter Fabisinski, Leo Hopkins, Randall C. Hornsby, Linda S. Johnson, Les Maples, C. Dauphne Miernik, Janie H. Thomas, Dan de Geronimo, Gianluigi Remillard, Ronald A Levine, Alan M |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Ray, Paul S. Chakrabarty, Deepto Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A. Philips, Bernard F. Wood, Kent S. Wolff, Michael T. Gwon, Chul S. Strohmayer, Tod E. Baysinger, Michael Briggs, Michael S. Capizzo, Peter Fabisinski, Leo Hopkins, Randall C. Hornsby, Linda S. Johnson, Les Maples, C. Dauphne Miernik, Janie H. Thomas, Dan de Geronimo, Gianluigi Remillard, Ronald A Levine, Alan M |
| author_sort | Ray, Paul S. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The Advanced X-ray Timing Array (AXTAR) is a mission concept for X-ray timing of compact objects that combines very large collecting area, broadband spectral coverage, high time resolution, highly flexible scheduling, and an ability to respond promptly to time-critical targets of opportunity. It is optimized for submillisecond timing of bright Galactic X-ray sources in order to study phenomena at the natural time scales of neutron star surfaces and black hole event horizons, thus probing the physics of ultradense matter, strongly curved spacetimes, and intense magnetic fields. AXTAR's main instrument, the Large Area Timing Array (LATA) is a collimated instrument with 2-50 keV coverage and over 3 square meters effective area. The LATA is made up of an array of supermodules that house 2-mm thick silicon pixel detectors. AXTAR will provide a significant improvement in effective area (a factor of 7 at 4 keV and a factor of 36 at 30 keV) over the RXTE PCA. AXTAR will also carry a sensitive Sky Monitor (SM) that acts as a trigger for pointed observations of X-ray transients in addition to providing high duty cycle monitoring of the X-ray sky. We review the science goals and technical concept for AXTAR and present results from a preliminary mission design study. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:15:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/61642 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:15:32Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | SPIE |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/616422022-10-01T14:03:01Z AXTAR: Mission design concept Ray, Paul S. Chakrabarty, Deepto Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A. Philips, Bernard F. Wood, Kent S. Wolff, Michael T. Gwon, Chul S. Strohmayer, Tod E. Baysinger, Michael Briggs, Michael S. Capizzo, Peter Fabisinski, Leo Hopkins, Randall C. Hornsby, Linda S. Johnson, Les Maples, C. Dauphne Miernik, Janie H. Thomas, Dan de Geronimo, Gianluigi Remillard, Ronald A Levine, Alan M Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Chakrabarty, Deepto Chakrabarty, Deepto Remillard, Ronald Alan Levine, Alan M. The Advanced X-ray Timing Array (AXTAR) is a mission concept for X-ray timing of compact objects that combines very large collecting area, broadband spectral coverage, high time resolution, highly flexible scheduling, and an ability to respond promptly to time-critical targets of opportunity. It is optimized for submillisecond timing of bright Galactic X-ray sources in order to study phenomena at the natural time scales of neutron star surfaces and black hole event horizons, thus probing the physics of ultradense matter, strongly curved spacetimes, and intense magnetic fields. AXTAR's main instrument, the Large Area Timing Array (LATA) is a collimated instrument with 2-50 keV coverage and over 3 square meters effective area. The LATA is made up of an array of supermodules that house 2-mm thick silicon pixel detectors. AXTAR will provide a significant improvement in effective area (a factor of 7 at 4 keV and a factor of 36 at 30 keV) over the RXTE PCA. AXTAR will also carry a sensitive Sky Monitor (SM) that acts as a trigger for pointed observations of X-ray transients in addition to providing high duty cycle monitoring of the X-ray sky. We review the science goals and technical concept for AXTAR and present results from a preliminary mission design study. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (APRA program NNG10WF45I ) Naval Research Laboratory (John C. Stennis Space Center) (6.1 Base Program) MIT Kavli Instrumentation and Technology Development Fund 2011-03-10T14:35:30Z 2011-03-10T14:35:30Z 2010-07 2010-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 0277-786X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61642 Ray, Paul S. et al. “AXTAR: mission design concept.” Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Ed. Monique Arnaud, Stephen S. Murray, & Tadayuki Takahashi. San Diego, California, USA: SPIE, 2010. 773248-19. © 2010 COPYRIGHT SPIE https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8804-8946 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.857385 Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering; v. 7732 Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf SPIE SPIE |
| spellingShingle | Ray, Paul S. Chakrabarty, Deepto Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A. Philips, Bernard F. Wood, Kent S. Wolff, Michael T. Gwon, Chul S. Strohmayer, Tod E. Baysinger, Michael Briggs, Michael S. Capizzo, Peter Fabisinski, Leo Hopkins, Randall C. Hornsby, Linda S. Johnson, Les Maples, C. Dauphne Miernik, Janie H. Thomas, Dan de Geronimo, Gianluigi Remillard, Ronald A Levine, Alan M AXTAR: Mission design concept |
| title | AXTAR: Mission design concept |
| title_full | AXTAR: Mission design concept |
| title_fullStr | AXTAR: Mission design concept |
| title_full_unstemmed | AXTAR: Mission design concept |
| title_short | AXTAR: Mission design concept |
| title_sort | axtar mission design concept |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61642 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8804-8946 |
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