Upcoming High-Energy Astrophysics Missions

These are the missions under develpment with their projected launch date.

• Athena [ESA, with some NASA contributions] was selected by ESA, within the Cosmic Vision Program, as the next large X-Ray observatory to investigate “The Hot and Energetic Universe” scientific theme. Athena consists of a single large-aperture grazing-incidence X-ray telescope, with 12m focal length and 5 arcsec HEW on-axis angular resolution, with two interchangeable instruments at the focal plane. One, the Wide Field Imager (WFI), is a wide field imaging and spectroscopy detector with a high count-rate capability, the other, the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU), is a cryogenic X-ray spectrometer delivering spatially resolved high-resolution spectroscopy over a smaller field of view. Athena will be placed into a large amplitude halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L2 point (To be launched in early 2030’s).
• BurstCube [NASA] is a 6U CubeSat to be deployed in low-earth orbit from the ISS to detect gamma-ray bursts with a payload similar to the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi. BurstCube detects short gamma-ray bursts and complements GBM and gravitational wave and binary neutron star mergers science (To be launched in 2023).
• enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission (eXTP) [China/European Institution ]- The enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP) is designed to study the state of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. The mission carries four science payload combining imaging and non-imaging instruments. These instruments enable the first simultaneous spectral-timing-polarimetry studies of cosmic sources in the energy range from 0.5–30 keV (To be launched in 2027).
• High Energy Radiation Detection (HERD) [China] - electron and gamma-ray detection (tens of GeV–10 TeV) cosmic ray energy measurement up to PeV. HERD is placed onboard China’s space station (To be launched in 2027).
• Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) [ESA/NASA] - will be the first space-based gravitational wave observatory. Selected to be ESA’s third large-class mission (L3), it will address the science theme of the Gravitational Universe. LISA will consist of three spacecraft separated by 2.5 million km in a triangular formation, following Earth in its orbit around the Sun. LISA is a collaboration of ESA and NASA (To be launched in 2034).
• Pioneer program : high energy missions The Pioneer 2020 program selected three high energy missions: two SmallSats, Aspera and StaBurst; and a balloon experiment, PUEO. Data from StarBurst and PUEO will be archived at the HEASARC. (All to be launched 2025/2026).
• Space-based astronomical Variable Object Monitor (SVOM) [Sino-French GRB mission] - with a 4–150 keV coded-mask telescope, a non-imaging gamma-ray (50 keV–5 MeV) spectrometer, an optical telescope, and a microchannel X-ray (0.2–10 keV) telescope with lobster-eye optics (To be launched ~March 2024).
• XL-Calibur is a balloon borne X-ray telescope to measure X-ray polarimeter in the 15–80 keV from black holes and neutron stars in our galaxy (Launched from Kiruna, Sweden in the July 2022; will fly again from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, ~May 2024).