Concept of the X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission

Makoto Tashiro, Hironori Maejima, Kenichi Toda, Richard Kelley, Lillian Reichenthal, James Lobell, Robert Petre, Matteo Guainazzi, Elisa Costantini, Mark Edison, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Martin Grim, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jan Willem Den Herder, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Stéphane Paltani, Kyoko Matsushita, Koji Mori, Gary Sneiderman, Yoh TakeiYukikatsu Terada, Hiroshi Tomida, Hiroki Akamatsu, Lorella Angelini, Yoshitaka Arai, Hisamitsu Awaki, Lurli Babyk, Aya Bamba, Peter Barfknecht, Kim Barnstable, Thomas Bialas, Branimir Blagojevic, Joseph Bonafede, Clifford Brambora, Laura Brenneman, Greg Brown, Kimberly Brown, Laura Burns, Edgar Canavan, Tim Carnahan, Meng Chiao, Brian Comber, Lia Corrales, Cor De Vries, Johannes Dercksen, Maria DIaz-Trigo, Tyrone DIllard, Michael DIpirro, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, Ken Ebisawa, Megan Eckart, Teruaki Enoto, Yuichiro Ezoe, Carlo Ferrigno, Yutaka Fujita, Yasushi Fukazawa, Akihiro Furuzawa, Luigi Gallo, Steve Graham, Liyi Gu, Kohichi Hagino, Kenji Hamaguchi, Isamu Hatsukade, Dean Hawes, Takayuki Hayashi, Cailey Hegarty, Natalie Hell, Junko Hiraga, Edmund Hodges-Kluck, Matt Holland, Ann Hornschemeier, Akio Hoshino, Yuto Ichinohe, Ryo Iizuka, Kazunori Ishibashi, Manabu Ishida, Kumi Ishikawa, Kosei Ishimura, Bryan James, Timothy Kallman, Erin Kara, Satoru Katsuda, Steven Kenyon, Caroline Kilbourne, Mark Kimball, Takao Kitaguchi, Shunji Kitamoto, Shogo Kobayashi, Takayoshi Kohmura, Shu Koyama, Aya Kubota, Maurice Leutenegger, Tom Lockard, Mike Loewenstein, Yoshitomo Maeda, Lynette Marbley, Maxim Markevitch, Connor Martz, Hironori Matsumoto, Keiichi Matsuzaki, Dan McCammon, Brian McNamara, Joseph Miko, Eric Miller, Jon Miller, Kenji Minesugi, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Hideyuki Mori, Koji Mukai, Hiroshi Murakami, Richard Mushotzky, Hiroshi Nakajima, Hideto Nakamura, Shinya Nakashima, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Chikara Natsukari, Kenichiro Nigo, Yusuke Nishioka, Kumiko Nobukawa, Masayoshi Nobukawa, Hirofumi Noda, Hirokazu Odaka, Mina Ogawa, Takaya Ohashi, Masahiro Ohno, Masayuki Ohta, Takashi Okajima, Atsushi Okamoto, Michitaka Onizuka, Naomi Ota, Masanobu Ozaki, Paul Plucinsky, F. Scott Porter, Katja Pottschmidt, Kosuke Sato, Rie Sato, Makoto Sawada, Hiromi Seta, Ken Shelton, Yasuko Shibano, Maki Shida, Megumi Shidatsu, Peter Shirron, Aurora Simionescu, Randall Smith, Kazunori Someya, Yang Soong, Yasuharu Suagawara, Andy Szymkowiak, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Toru Tamagawa, Takayuki Tamura, Takaaki Tanaka, Yuichi Terashima, Yohko Tsuboi, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Takeshi Tsuru, Hiroyuki Uchida, Hideki Uchiyama, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shinichiro Uno, Thomas Walsh, Shin Watanabe, Brian Williams, Rob Wolfs, Michael Wright, Shinya Yamada, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Noriko Yamasaki, Shigeo Yamauchi, Makoto Yamauchi, Keiichi Yanagase, Tahir Yaqoob, Susumu Yasuda, Nasa Yoshioka, Jaime Zabala, Zhuravleva Irina

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

125 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The ASTRO-H mission was designed and developed through an international collaboration of JAXA, NASA, ESA, and the CSA. It was successfully launched on February 17, 2016, and then named Hitomi. During the in-orbit verification phase, the on-board observational instruments functioned as expected. The intricate coolant and refrigeration systems for soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS, a quantum micro-calorimeter) and soft X-ray imager (SXI, an X-ray CCD) also functioned as expected. However, on March 26, 2016, operations were prematurely terminated by a series of abnormal events and mishaps triggered by the attitude control system. These errors led to a fatal event: the loss of the solar panels on the Hitomi mission. The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (or, XARM) is proposed to regain the key scientific advances anticipated by the international collaboration behind Hitomi. XARM will recover this science in the shortest time possible by focusing on one of the main science goals of Hitomi,"Resolving astrophysical problems by precise high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy".1 This decision was reached after evaluating the performance of the instruments aboard Hitomi and the mission's initial scientific results, and considering the landscape of planned international X-ray astrophysics missions in 2020's and 2030's. Hitomi opened the door to high-resolution spectroscopy in the X-ray universe. It revealed a number of discrepancies between new observational results and prior theoretical predictions. Yet, the resolution pioneered by Hitomi is also the key to answering these and other fundamental questions. The high spectral resolution realized by XARM will not offer mere refinements; rather, it will enable qualitative leaps in astrophysics and plasma physics. XARM has therefore been given a broad scientific charge: "Revealing material circulation and energy transfer in cosmic plasmas and elucidating evolution of cosmic structures and objects". To fulfill this charge, four categories of science objectives that were defined for Hitomi will also be pursued by XARM; these include (1) Structure formation of the Universe and evolution of clusters of galaxies; (2) Circulation history of baryonic matters in the Universe; (3) Transport and circulation of energy in the Universe; (4) New science with unprecedented high resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In order to achieve these scientific objectives, XARM will carry a 6 × 6 pixelized X-ray micro-calorimeter on the focal plane of an X-ray mirror assembly, and an aligned X-ray CCD camera covering the same energy band and a wider field of view. This paper introduces the science objectives, mission concept, and observing plan of XARM.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSpace Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018
Subtitle of host publicationUltraviolet to Gamma Ray
EditorsShouleh Nikzad, Jan-Willem A. Den Herder, Kazuhiro Nakazawa
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Print)9781510619517
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
EventSpace Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray - Austin, United States
Duration: 10-06-201815-06-2018

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume10699
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Other

OtherSpace Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period10-06-1815-06-18

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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