The DUAL mission concept
2011
DUAL will study the origin and evolution of the elements and explores new frontiers of physics: extreme energies that drive powerful stellar explosions and accelerate particles to macroscopic energies; extreme densities that modify the laws of physics around the most compact objects known; and extreme fields that influence matter in a way that is unknown on Earth. The variability of these extreme objects requires continuous
all-
skycoverage, while detailed study demands an improvement in sensitivity over previous technologies by at least an order of magnitude. The DUAL payload is composed of an
All-
SkyCompton Imager (ASCI), and two
optical modules, the Laue-
Lens Optic(LLO) and the Coded-Mask Optic (CMO). The ASCI serves dual roles simultaneously, both as an optimal focal-plane sensor for deep observations with the
optical modulesand as a sensitive true
all-
skytelescope in its own right for
all-
skysurveys and monitoring. While the
optical modulesare located on the main satellite, the
All-
SkyCompton Imager is situated on a
deployable structureat a distance of 30 m from the satellite. This configuration not only permits to maintain the less massive payload at the focal distance, it also greatly reduces the spacecraft-induced detector background, and, above
allit provides ASCI with a continuous
all-
skyexposure.
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