High Energy Transient Explorer 1

The concept of a satellite capable of multi-wavelength observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) was discussed at the Santa Cruz, California meeting on GRBs in 1981.

This concept, which was adopted, emphasized accurate locations and multi-wavelength coverage as the primary scientific goals for a sharply-focused small satellite mission which would ultimately solve the gamma-ray burst mystery.

A wide-field coded-aperture X-ray imager, supplied by a collaboration of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Institute of Chemistry and Physics (RIKEN) of Tokyo, Japan.

[2] The prime objective of HETE-1 was to carry out the first multi-wavelength study of GRBs with ultraviolet (UV), X-ray, and gamma-ray instruments mounted on a single, compact spacecraft.

A unique feature of the HETE-1 mission was its capability to localize GRBs with ~10 arcseconds accuracy in near real time aboard the spacecraft, and to transmit these positions directly to a network of receivers at existing ground-based observatories enabling rapid, sensitive follow-up studies in the radio, infrared (IR), and visible light bands.

The instrument consisted of coded aperture cameras, sensitive in the 2-25 keV energy range, and with location accuracy to ~ 10 arcminutes or better.