Cosmology with ESA's future high-energy astronomy programme

The European Space Agency, ESA, is currently studying 4 high-energy astrophysics missions. These are Lobster-ISS, an all-sky imaging X-ray monitor, the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) which will study the highest energy cosmic rays by using the Earth's atmosphere as a giant detector, Rosita (ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), and XEUS - the X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy Mission, a potential successor to ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. These missions will study many types of objects including black holes and clusters of galaxies. The origin of the high-energy cosmic rays to be observed by EUSO is unknown and may have cosmological implications. These first 3 missions will be attached to external platforms on the International Space Station (ISS), while XEUS will visit the ISS to attach additional X-ray mirrors to enlarge the original 4.5 m diameter mirrors to the 10 m diameter required for deep cosmological studies of the early Universe.