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On-board Instruments

Following the scientific requirements described before, The baseline Instrument suite configuration of THEUS payload includes four lobster-eye modules (F=300mm), a 70cm class IR telescope and two hard X-ray / soft gamma-ray detectors based on Si+CsI(Tl) coupling technology covering the total FOV of the lobster-eye modules. In summary, the scientific payload of THESEUS will be composed by:

  • Soft X-ray Imager (SXI): a set of 2 « Lobster-Eye » X-ray (0.3 - 5 keV) telescopes covering a total FOV of 0.5sr field with 0.5-2 arcmin source location accuracy, provided by a UK led consortium (+Belgium and Czech republic);

  • InfraRed Telescope (IRT): a 70 cm class near-infrared (0.7 - 1.8 microns) telescope with imaging and moderate spectral capabilities provided by a France led consortium (+ ESA and Switzerland);

  • X-Gamma-rays Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS): spectrometer based on 4 detection units based on SDD+CsI(Tl) modules (2 keV – 20 MeV) , covering twice the FOV of the SXI. This instrument will be provided by an Italian led consortium (+Spain, Denmark and Poland);

All the Instrument will be equipped with an Instrument Data Handling Unit (I-DHU) interfacing each of the three instruments with the spacecraft (provided by a German led consortium).