Abstract: Current trends in the design new missions and missionconcepts for space-borne high-energy astrophysicsresearch concentrate on the development of advanceddetection systems. While progress in detector researchand development is critical to the future success ofspace astrophysics, tremendous advances incommunications technology stand ready to breathe newlife into stable and established detector technologyand detection schemes. Very high rate telemetry systemshave a proven record in space-based Earth sciencemissions, yet have been largely overlooked by spaceastrophysics researchers. By employing advancedtelemetry systems, such currently available detectortechnologies as NaI can now be used to buildhigh-energy astrophysics experiments that open a vastnew phase space of astrophysical research. As a contextfor our discussion, we describe a proposed mediumexplorer-class mission called ALLEGRO (all-sky lowenergy gamma ray observatory), a high time and energyresolution experiment that uses high rate telemetry toprovide a virtual 'photon pipe' in the 7 - 200 keVenergy range. !3
展开▼
