XLA -- The X-ray Large Array

by Kent S. Wood, US Naval Research Lab, United States,
Peter F. Michelson, US Naval Research Lab, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space

Abstract:

The Naval Research Laboratory, Stanford University, and The University of Washington have proposed a large (100 square meters) array of X-ray detectors, called XLA, to be built at the NASA Space Station and used there for X-ray astrophysics observations. A Pre-Phase A engineering study of XLA has been completed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. XLA will be a general purpose instrument, gathering information for the study of objects such as neutron stars, black holes, and quasars. Its fundamental improvement in measurement capability over earlier instruments consists of very rapid measurement of fluxes and spectra of X-ray sources. The large aperture of XLA makes it possible to detect X-ray sources in time intervals as short as milliseconds to microseconds.

Subject Headings: X rays | Federal government | Space stations | Probe instruments | Colleges and universities | Astronomy | Aerospace engineering

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