The Constellation X-ray mission

The Constellation-X mission is a large collecting area X-ray facility, emphasizing observations at high spectral resolution (E/ΔE∼300–3000) while covering a broad energy band (0.25–40 keV). By increasing the telescope aperture and utilizing efficient spectrometers the mission will achieve a factor of 100 increased sensitivity over current high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy missions. The use of focussing optics across the 10–40 keV band will provide a similar factor of 100 increased sensitivity in this band. Key technologies under development for the mission include lightweight high throughput X-ray optics, multilayer coatings to enhance the hard X-ray performance of X-ray optics, micro-calorimeter spectrometer arrays with 2 eV resolution, low-power and low-weight CCD arrays, lightweight gratings and hard X-ray detectors. When observations commence towards the end of the next decade, Constellation-X will address many pressing questions concerning the extremes of gravity and the evolution of the Universe.