The Generation-X Vision Mission is an X-ray telescope designed to study the new frontier of astrophysics: the birth and evolution of the first stars, galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. X-ray astronomy offers an opportunity to detect these via the activity of the black holes, and the supernova explosions and gamma-ray burst afterglows of the massive stars. However, such objects are beyond the grasp of current missions which are operating or even under development. Our team has conceived a Generation-X Vision Mission based on an X-ray observatory with 100 m2 collecting area at 1 keV (1000 times larger than Chandra) and 0.1 arcsecond angular resolution (several times better than Chandra and 50 times better than the Constellation-X resolution goal). Such a high energy observatory will be capable of detecting the earliest black holes and galaxies in the Universe, and will also study the chemical evolution of the Universe and extremes of density, gravity, magnetic fields, and kinetic energy which cannot be created in laboratories.

Science Goals

• Detect the first galaxies, stars and black holes
• Trace the evolution of structure, black holes, and galaxies and the elements they produce from the earliest times to the present epoch
• Probe the behavior of matter in extreme environments

Spacecraft Architecture

• A single, large optic on its own spacecraft formation-flying with a spacecraft carrying a suite of detectors
• Multiple identical spacecraft each having a smaller optic attached to its detector suite