X-80, a European X-ray astrophysics mission

The Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer: a New Mission for X-ray Timing

The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has given us a new probe to study strong gravitational fields and to measure the physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a “next-generation” x-ray timing mission, the Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer (RAE), designed to fit within the envelope of a “medium-sized” mission. The main instruments will be a ...

Atomic Data for X-ray Astrophysics

We review the available atomic data used for interpreting and modeling X-ray observations. The applications for these data can be divided into several levels of detail, ranging from compilations which can be used with direct inspection of raw data, such as line finding lists, to synthetic spectra which attempt to fit to an entire observed dataset simultaneously. This review covers cosmic source...

SIMBOL–X a formation flying mission for hard X-rays astrophysics

SIMBOL-X is a hard X-ray mission, operating in the ~ 0.5–70 keV range, which is proposed by a consortium of European laboratories in response to the 2004 call for ideas of CNES for a scientific mission to be flown on a formation flying demonstrator. Relying on two spacecrafts in a formation flying configuration, SIMBOL–X uses for the first time a ~ 30 m focal length X–ray mirror to focus X–rays...

The MAXIM Pathfinder X-ray Interferometry Mission

The MAXIM Pathfinder (MP) mission is under study as a scientific and technical stepping stone for the full MAXIM X-ray interferometry mission. While full MAXIM will resolve the event horizons of black holes with 0.1 microarcsecond imaging, MP will address scientific and technical issues as a 100 microarcsecond imager with some capabilities to resolve microarcsecond structure. We will present th...

MAXIM MicroArcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission