NuSTAR: The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
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POWERFUL: NuSTAR will be the first focusing
hard X-ray telescope in orbit. Its design eliminates
high detector backgrounds, allows true imaging,
and permits the use of compact high performance
detectors. The result: a combination of clarity,
sensitivity, and spectral resolution surpassing the
largest observatories that have operated in this
band by orders of magnitude.
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EXCITING: NuSTAR's primary science objectives
include:
- Conducting a census for black
holes on all scales, achieved
through deep, wide-field surveys
of extragalactic fields and
the Galactic center.
- Mapping radioactive material
in young supernova remnants,
to study the birth of the elements and to understand how stars explode.
- Exposing relativistic jets of particles from the most extreme active
galaxies, to
understand what powers giant cosmic accelerators.
NuSTAR will also study cosmic ray origins and the extreme physics around
collapsed stars, and will respond to targets of opportunity including
supernovae
and gamma-ray bursts. A proposed Phase F program will open the unprecedented
capabilities of NuSTAR to guest investigators from the broad scientific
community.
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TIMELY: NuSTAR will launch in August 2011, providing follow-up to
discoveries by Chandra
and Spitzer. NuSTAR will team with GLAST, making simultaneous observations to
greatly enhance
GLAST's science return, and NuSTAR will act as a key pathfinder for future
roadmap missions.
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NECESSARY: NuSTAR fills important gaps between the SEU roadmap missions. A
black hole
census, a key step in the Beyond Einstein program, requires deep high-energy
surveys that only
NuSTAR can complete. Understanding stellar explosions, a key focus of the
Cycles of Matter and
Energy program, requires spectral coverage unplanned for other missions, and
understanding relativistic
AGN, another Cycles project, require simultaneous GLAST and NuSTAR
observations.
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READY: The NuSTAR instrument builds on the successful development of the HEFT
balloon
program, using a simple design with extensive heritage and experience. Using
an extendable mast
based on the successful SRTM design and a heritage bus, NuSTAR is a low-cost,
low-risk, mission.
MISSION OVERVIEW
NuSTAR consists of a single instrument that achieves
its science objectives with a combination of surveys and
pointed observations.
The robust mission
design is based on a 3-axis stabilized spacecraft and
simple operations concept. A Pegasus launch to equatorial
orbit provides a stable, low-background environment.
The Mission Operations Center processes the Level 0 data
and passes it to the Science Operations Center at Caltech
which performs all Level 1 and 2 processing and immediately
makes the calibrated data available via the High Energy
Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center.
INSTRUMENT OVERVIEW
The NuSTAR instrument consists of an array of
two co-aligned hard X-ray telescopes. The grazing
incidence mirrors focus onto two shielded
solid-state pixel detectors, separated by a mast that
extends the focal length to 10m after launch. A laser
metrology system monitors the mast alignment.
The optics utilize thin glass shells coated with
depth-graded multi-layers to extend the bandpass
and FOV over that achievable with standard metal
surfaces. Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) detectors provide
excellent spectral resolution and high quantum efficiency
without requiring cryogenic operation.
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