Advanced coded-mask soft X-ray cameras for GRB missions
Abstract
The coded-mask soft X-ray camera SXC first flown on the HETE satellite has demonstrated the power of such an instrument for accurately localizing gamma-ray bursts from their prompt X-ray emission in the 1-10 keV band In five years of in-orbit operations by the HETE satellite the SXC has localized more than 25 GRBs -- approximately one-quarter of the GRBs localized by HETE -- with accuracies of 1 arc minute The HETE SXC is extremely compact 10 cm cube low in power 10 W and requires only 10 detected photons to derive an accurate location The key elements for such an instrument are an accurate multislit coded mask that is precisely spaced and aligned with respect to an X-ray CCD focal plane Improvements in detector and mask technologies that we have recently made to a next generation SXC should allow flight instruments for future missions to achieve GRB localization accuracies of 2-5 arcsec with even lower instrument power 1 W We will describe these improvements in the context of future small satellite missions
- Publication:
-
36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006cosp...36.3416R