1. The DUAL mission concept
- Author
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Nicolas M. Barrière, José Alvarez, Andrei M. Bykov, Jürgen Knödlseder, Lorraine Hanlon, Pierre Jean, Rui Curado da Silva, Juan Manuel Del Cura Velayos, Peter von Ballmoos, Emmanuel Hinglais, Mark D. Leising, Jean Pierre Prost, Lucien Kuiper, Margarita Hernanz, John A. Tomsick, Tadayuki Takahashi, Filippo Frontera, Roland Walter, S. E. Boggs, Benoît Pirard, Jordi Isern, and Andreas Zoglauer
- Subjects
Physics ,business.industry ,Payload ,Detector ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,law.invention ,Telescope ,Optics ,law ,Nuclear astrophysics ,Focal length ,Satellite ,Sensitivity (control systems) ,Deployable structure ,business - Abstract
DUAL will study the origin and evolution of the elements and explores new frontiers of physics: extreme energies that drive powerful stellar explosions and accelerate particles to macroscopic energies; extreme densities that modify the laws of physics around the most compact objects known; and extreme fields that influence matter in a way that is unknown on Earth. The variability of these extreme objects requires continuous all-sky coverage, while detailed study demands an improvement in sensitivity over previous technologies by at least an order of magnitude. The DUAL payload is composed of an All-Sky Compton Imager (ASCI), and two optical modules, the Laue-Lens Optic (LLO) and the Coded-Mask Optic (CMO). The ASCI serves dual roles simultaneously, both as an optimal focal-plane sensor for deep observations with the optical modules and as a sensitive true all-sky telescope in its own right for all-sky surveys and monitoring. While the optical modules are located on the main satellite, the All-Sky Compton Imager is situated on a deployable structure at a distance of 30 m from the satellite. This configuration not only permits to maintain the less massive payload at the focal distance, it also greatly reduces the spacecraft-induced detector background, and, above all it provides ASCI with a continuous all-sky exposure.
- Published
- 2011