The Constellation X-ray mission

The Constellation-X mission is a large collecting area X-ray facility, emph asizing observations at high spectral resolution (E/Delta E similar to 300- 3000) while covering a broad energy band (0.25-40 keV). By increasing the t elescope aperture and utilizing efficient spectrometers the mission will ac hieve 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 ba nd. 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, microcalorimeter spectrometer arrays with 2 e V resolution, low-power and low-weight CCD arrays, lightweight gratings and hard X-ray detectors. When observations commence towards the end of the ne xt decade, Constellation-X will address many pressing questions concerning the extremes of gravity and the evolution of the Universe. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.