Relativistic astrophysics explorer Original Research Article

The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has shown that X-ray timing is an excellent tool for the study of strong gravitational fields and the measurement of fundamental physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a next-generation X-ray timing mission, the Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer (RAE), designed to fit within the envelope of a medium-sized mission. The instruments will be a narrow-field X-ray detector array with an area of 6 m2 equal to 10 times that of RXTE and a wide-field X-ray monitor. We describe the science made possible with this mission, the design of the instruments, and results on prototype large-area X-ray detectors.