The status of the Constellation-X mission

Robert Petre; Nicholas E. White; Harvey Tananbaum; Ann Hornschemeier; Jay Bookbinder; Michael Garcia; Jean Grady; Caroline Kilbourne

doi:10.1117/12.734379

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18 September 2007 The status of the Constellation-X mission

Robert Petre, Nicholas E. White, Harvey Tananbaum, Ann Hornschemeier, Jay Bookbinder, Michael Garcia, Jean Grady, Caroline Kilbourne

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Proceedings Volume 6686, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XV; 66860B (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734379
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Constellation-X mission will address questions central to the NASA Beyond Einstein Program, using high throughput X-ray spectroscopy to measure the effects of strong gravity close to the event horizon of black holes, study the formation and evolution of clusters of galaxies to precisely determine cosmological parameter values, measure the properties of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium, and determine the equation of state of neutron stars. Achieving these science goals requires a factor of ~100 increase in sensitivity for high resolution spectroscopy over current X-ray observatories. This paper briefly describes the Constellation-X mission, summarizes its basic performance parameters such as effective area and spectral resolution, and gives a general update on the mission. The details of the updated mission configuration, compatible with a single Atlas-V 551 launch vehicle, are presented.

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Robert Petre, Nicholas E. White, Harvey Tananbaum, Ann Hornschemeier, Jay Bookbinder, Michael Garcia, Jean Grady, and Caroline Kilbourne "The status of the Constellation-X mission", Proc. SPIE 6686, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XV, 66860B (18 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734379

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