The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)
2010
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is a NASA Small Explorer mission that will carry the rst
focusing hard X-ray (6 - 80 keV) telescope to orbit. NuSTAR will oer a factor 50 - 100 sensitivity improvement
compared to previous collimated or coded mask imagers that have operated in this energy band. In addition,
NuSTAR provides sub-arcminute imaging with good spectral resolution over a 12-arcminute eld of view. After
launch, NuSTAR will carry out a two-year primary science mission that focuses on four key programs: studying
the evolution of massive black holes through surveys carried out in elds with excellent multiwavelength coverage,
understanding the population of compact objects and the nature of the massive black hole in the center of the
Milky Way, constraining the explosion dynamics and nucleosynthesis in supernovae, and probing the nature
of particle acceleration in relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei. A number of additional observations will be
included in the primary mission, and a guest observer program will be proposed for an extended mission to expand
the range of scientic targets. The payload consists of two co-aligned depth-graded multilayer coated grazing
incidence optics focused onto a solid state CdZnTe pixel detectors. To be launched in early 2012 on a Pegasus
rocket into a low-inclination Earth orbit, NuSTAR largely avoids SAA passage, and will therefore have low and
stable detector backgrounds. The telescope achieves a 10.14-meter focal length through on-orbit deployment of
an extendable mast. An aspect and alignment metrology system enable reconstruction of the absolute aspect
and variations in the telescope alignment resulting from mast
exure during ground data processing. Data will
be publicly available at GSFC's High Energy Archive Research Center (HEASARC) following validation at the
science operations center located at Caltech.
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