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Swift: A Gamma Ray Bursts ExplorerSwift is a NASA gamma-ray burst MIDEX mission that is in development for launch in December 2003. It is a multiwavelength transient observatory for GRB astronomy. The goals of the mission are to determine the origin of GRBs and their afterglows and use bursts to probe the early Universe. It will also.perform a survey of the hard X-ray sky to a sensitivity level of -1 mCrab. A wide-field camera will detect more than a hundred GRBs per year to 5 times fainter than BATSE. Sensitive narrow-field X-ray and UV/optical telescopes will be pointed at the burst location in 20 to 70 sec by an autonomously controlled 'swift' spacecraft. For each burst, arcsec positions will be determined and optical/UV/X-ray/gamma-ray spectrophotometry performed. Measurements of redshift will be made for many of the bursts. The instrumentation is a combination of superb existing flight-spare hardware and design from XMM and Spectrum-X/JET-X contributed by collaborators in the UK and Italy and development of a coded-aperture camera with a large-area (approximately 0.5 square meter) CdZnTe detector array. The hardware is currently in final stages of fabrication and initial stages of integration and test. Key components of the mission are vigorous follow-up and outreach programs to engage the astronomical community and public in Swift.
Document ID
20030054379
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Gehrels, Neil
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Meeting Information
Meeting: Annual APS April Meeting 2003
Country: United States
Start Date: April 1, 2003
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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