Optimisation of the design for the LOFT Large Area Detector Module

摘要

LOFT (Large Observatory for X-ray Timing) is an X-ray timing observatorythat, with four other candidates, was considered by ESA as an M3 mission (withlaunch in 2022-2024) and has been studied during an extensive assessment phase.Its pointed instrument is the Large Area Detector (LAD), a 10 m 2 -classinstrument operating in the 2-30 keV range, which is designed to perform X-raytiming of compact objects with unprecedented resolution down to millisecondtime scales. Although LOFT was not downselected for launch, during theassessment most of the trade-offs have been closed, leading to a robust andwell documented design that will be reproposed in future ESA calls. Thebuilding block of the LAD instrument is the Module, and in this paper wesummarize the rationale for the module concept, the characteristics of themodule and the trade-offs/optimisations which have led to the current design.