Gravity and Extreme Magnetism

Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX

Artist's impression of GEMS.
General information
Organization NASA
Major contractors Orbital Sciences
Alliant Techsystems
Launch date Cancelled
Launch site Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral
Launch vehicle Pegasus Class TBD[1]
Mission length 9 months[1]
Mass 288.7 kg (636 lb)[1]
Location 575 km from Earth, 28.5 degree inclination, circular
(Low Earth orbit)[1]
Instruments
X-ray Polarimeter Instrument (XPI) Two co-aligned telescopes
Website gems.gsfc.nasa.gov

The Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS) mission was a cancelled space observatory mission. The main scientific goal of GEMS was to be the first mission to systematically measure the polarization of cosmic X-Ray sources. GEMS would have provided data to help scientists study the shape of space that has been distorted by a spinning black hole's gravity and the structure and effects of the magnetic fields around Neutron stars. It was cancelled by NASA in June 2012 for potential cost overruns due to delays in developing the technology.

GEMS was managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA, the United States space agency, at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The project was an astrophysics program reporting to NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington, D.C..[2]

The spacecraft would have been launched on in July 2014 on a nine-month mission with a possible 15 month extension for a guest observer phase;[3] but the mission was terminated at the Confirmation Review stage on May 10, 2012 due to expected cost overruns.

Cancelled missions can be reinstated— for example NuSTAR was cancelled in 2006, but reinstated a year later and launched in June 2012.[4] However, NuSTAR was not cancelled due to project overruns, but rather due to changes in the overall NASA budget, so the circumstances for cancellation were very different. Of course small missions of the Explorer program offer a lot of flexibility and launch opportunities, and the lessons learned can be applied to the same missions goals, but on a different mission (Compare Vanguard 1 to Explorer 1) Just a couple years later two new X-ray polarimetry mission won a NASA award to develop a X-ray polarimetry missions.[5]

Mission

The GEMS X-ray telescope was designed to indirectly measure the regions of distorted space around spinning black holes through a measurement of the polarization of X-rays emitted. It will thereby probe the structure and effects of the magnetic field around magnetars and dead stars with magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's.

GEMS could reveal:

Current missions cannot do this because the required angular resolution is limited and magnetic fields are invisible.

The detector in GEMS would have been a small chamber filled with gas. When an X-ray is absorbed in the gas, an electron carries off most of the energy, and starts out in a direction related to the polarization direction of the X-ray. This electron loses energy by ionizing the gas; the instrument measures the direction of the ionization track, and thereby the polarization of the X-ray. The GEMS detector readout will employ a time projection chamber to image the track. The GEMS instrument is about 100 times more sensitive than previous X-ray polarization experiments.

Mission costs were capped at US$105 million (in Fiscal Year 2008 dollars), excluding the launch vehicle,[7] but an independent confirmation review board at NASA claimed it would grow to an estimated $150 million, leading to cancellation of the mission.

The cancellation of GEMS marks the end of a multi-year-long binge of cancellations and attempted cancellations of current and future missions: it was at the time the last funded future U.S. space telescope besides JWST. The cancellation of GEMS may have jeopardized the Pegasus XL launcher.[8] (The Pegasus XL has successfully launched other small explorer missions)

Project Status

GEMS was one of six Small Explorer missions selected in May 2008 for the NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) Program Phase A study.[9] In June 2009, GEMS was chosen to be the second of these missions to go forward into Phase B, starting in October 2010 for a launch in April 2014.[7]

The project completed and successfully passed the Systems Requirements Review (SRR) Design review (US Government) in December 2010.[10]

GEMS did not pass a confirmation review conducted on 2012-05-10, which effectively cancelled the project. The project team intended to appeal the cancellation.[11]

NASA on June 7, 2012 announced the cancellation of the GEMS project. The Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer mission was supposed to blast off in 2014 to study black holes and neutron stars. But external reviews found the project would likely come in over budget. GEMS was supposed to hold at $119 million, not counting the rocket. NASA's astrophysics director, Paul Hertz, says the technology needed for the instrument took longer to develop than expected, and that drove up the price.[12]

NASA later studied X-ray polarimetry missions in 2015 for future explorer program observatories.[13] Just as Galileo once turned his new telescope skyward to study the heavens, NASA continues to develop new telescopes that shed light on the Earth's universe

Project and Science Team

The GEMS Principal Investigator is Dr Jean H. Swank, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Project Team

Science Team

Co-Investigators

Science Collaborators

Other GEMS collaborators are from universities include:[1][15]

References

External links

Contractor Partners

Science Instrument Co-Investigator Sites

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