The SuperHERO High-Angular Resolution, Hard-X-Ray Telescope

The Super – High Energy Replicated Optics (SuperHERO) hard-X-ray telescope will observe extended sources at unprecedented imaging resolution, revealing the origins of non-thermal emission in extreme astrophysical environments. As the successor to the HERO/HEROES missions, SuperHERO builds on over three decades of advancements in NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s replicated NiCo full-shell X-ray mirror technology to deliver better than 10-arcsecond angular resolution (Half-Power Diameter) from a balloon platform: realizing the highest imaging resolution in the hard-X-ray band. The observatory consists of seven identical and co-aligned, 12-meter focal length, mirror assembly telescopes mounted on a carbon-composite, asymmetrical truss. Direct coating of single-layer iridium on the internal surface of the NiCo shells provides an integrated effective area of 45.5 cm2 at 35 keV. Matching the optics spatial scale requirements, each telescope is paired with a CdTe Doublesided Strip Detector (CdTe-DSD) focal plane that is commercially available from iMAGINE-X Inc. Arc-second level attitude control and pointing are provided by the Wallops Arc-Second Pointer (WASP).

SuperHERO was selected in the NASA’s Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis (APRA) 2023 call as a five-year mission with a 2-day long initial flight scheduled for the fall of 2028. Launching from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, SuperHERO will make detailed observations of the Crab pulsar wind nebula, localizing hard-Xray emission. A follow-on SuperHERO mission will benefit from increased effective area and improved angular resolution. This future mission will propose as a long-duration balloon flight, targeting supernova remnants and galactic binary point sources, and laying the path forward to a high-angular resolution, space-based hard-X-ray observatory.