Ioffe Institute GRB experiments: past, present and future

Abstract

The short review of GRB studies performed for many years by Ioffe Institute is presented. An important breakthrough in GRB studies became possible owing to four Konus experiments carried out by the Ioffe Institute onboard the Venera 11 to 14 interplanetary missions from 1978 to 1983. The joint Russian-American Konus-Wind experiment, which has already been operating for more than 18 years, provides important and often unique data regarding GRB characteristics in 20 keV – 15 MeV energy range. These investigations were complemented by several Konus and Helicon experiments onboard Russian near-Earth spacecraft. A short description of future Konus-UF and Konus-M experiments are also given