The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER)

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is an approved NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to the study of the extraordinary gravitational, electromagnetic, and nuclearphysics environments embodied by neutron stars. Scheduled to be launched in 2016 as an International Space Station payload, NICER will explore the exotic states of matter, using rotationresolved spectroscopy of the thermal and nonthermal emissions of neutron stars in the soft (0.212 keV) Xray band. Grazingincidence "concentrator" optics coupled with silicon drift detectors, actively pointed for a full hemisphere of sky coverage, will provide photoncounting spectroscopy and timing registered to GPS time and position, with high throughput and relatively low background. The NICER project plans to implement a Guest Observer Program, which includes competitively selected user targets after the first year of flight operations. I will describe NICER and discuss ideas for potential Be/Xray binary science