ASTRO-E was to be the Japan's fifth X-ray astronomy
mission, but was unfortunately lost during launch (10 Feb 2000).
Astro-E was developed at the Japanese
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in collaboration
with the US and Japanese institutions.
Astro-E was to carry, among other instruments, a new type
of X-ray spectrometer, the X-ray micro-calorimenter, which provides an
unprecendent energy resolution compared to non-dispersive instruments.
Mission Characteristics
Lifetime :
early 2000 - (XRS has a 2 year lifetime) Energy Range : 0.4-700 keV Special Features
: First X-ray micro-calorimeter in space
Payload :
Five nested conical thin-foil grazing incidence telescopes (XRT),
with a spacial resolution of < 1.5´. Four telescopes
are gold-coated (XRT-I) and one is platinum-coated (XRT-S).
At the focus of each telescope there is one of the following detectors :
X-ray Spectrometer (XRS; 0.4-10 keV; one unit)
It is X-ray micro-calorimeter composite of 32 pixels
at the foci of the XRT-S.
Energy resolution ~12 eV at 6 keV.
FOV 2´ X 4´
X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS; 0.4-10 keV; four units)
Each units is a 1024 X 1024 pixel CCD detector
at the foci of one XRT-I.
FOV 19´ X 19´, eff. area per each 300 cm2 @
1 keV, energy resolution 130 eV (E/6keV)1/2
Lifetime :
early 2000 - (XRS has a 2 year lifetime) 
