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Mission Instruments on board Astro-E2

The Astro-E carries five soft X-ray telescopes and one hard X-ray telescope.

XRT
The soft X-ray telescopes (XRT) consists of five X-ray mirrors and five focal plane detectors, i.e., four X-ray imaging spectrometers (XIS) and a single high-resolution X-ray spectrometer (XRS). The XIS is an X-ray CCD camera which covers an energy range of 0.4-10 keV with a typical energy resolution of 100 eV. The XRS is an array of X-ray micro-calorimeters which covers an energy range similar to the XIS with a typical energy resolution of 12 eV.

The basic concept of the mirrors (XRT) is an improvement over ASCA. The mirrors will have a finer imaging capability (about 1 arcminute half-power diameter) and a larger total effective area than ASCA. The mirror diameter will be 40 cm. The focal lengths will be 4.5 m for XRS and 4.75 m for XIS.

NASA-GSFC, Nagoya University and ISAS are responsible for the development of the XRT.

XRS
The prime instrument on Astro-E, the XRS is a high-resolution X-ray spectrometer to measure the spectra of X-ray sources. The instrument was built by ISAS and NASA, and uses an array of X-ray micro-calorimeters and foil mirrors to achieve an unprecedented combination of high resolution and large collecting area.

The XRS is expected to last for 2 years, by which time the solid neon which keeps the detectors cold will all have melted. The other instruments on the spacecraft will continue to operate for several years.

XIS
XIS consists of four CCD X-ray imaging spectrometers, also using foil mirrors, which provide images of X-ray sources. The detectors were built by MIT.

HXD
HXD is a hard X-ray detector designed to observe high-energy (10-700 keV) X-rays. The HXD will utilize well-type phoswich scintillators with embedded silicon detectors currently under development by the University of Tokyo and ISAS. The HXD consists of 16 (4 x 4) modular units and has an overall photon collecting area of about 350 cm2. Each unit is a phoswich counter comprising a GSO fast scintillator and an active BGO anticoincidence shield.

ISAS/JAXA Department of High Energy Astrophysics