NICER ground verification: as-built timing, spectroscopy, and throughout performance of NASA's next X-raytiming astrophysics mission
Abstract
The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) Mission of Opportunity will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 aboard a SpaceX resupply vehicle. Once installed as an external attached payload, NICER will provide an unprecedented soft X-ray timing spectroscopy capability for neutron stars and other phenomena. In June 2016, the NICER payload was delivered from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to Cape Canaveral to await launch processing. We present measurements made as part of NICER's preship testing to verify performance of its X-ray Timing Instrument and associated subsystems; these measurements demonstrate that NICER meets or surpasses its design requirements in the areas of photon time-tagging resolution, energy resolution, effective collecting area, and high-rate throughput.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22930903G