MiXI: The Miniature X-ray Imager

Juan Carlos Martinez Oliveros1, Lindsay Glesener2, David J Sundkvist3, Pascal Saint-Hilaire4, Hazel M Bain4, Martin D Fivian5, Gordon J Hurford6, John Glen Sample7, Stuart D Bale8 and Sam Krucker1, (1)Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, United States, (2)University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, United States, (3)UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab, Berkeley, CA, United States, (6)Univ California, Berkeley, CA, United States, (7)Montana State University, Bozeman, United States, (8)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
Abstract:
The Miniature X-ray Imager (MiXI) is an innovative, small, and fully functional solar X-ray observatory concept designed to fit within a 6U CubeSat platform. MiXI will provide the community with X-ray imaging in the energy range from ~6 to 40-50 keV and spectroscopy up to 100 keV of solar flares at a small fraction of the cost of a conventional mission. It includes rotation modulation collimators and layered Si/CdTe detectors, providing routine observations of both soft and hard X-ray emission with low background. Coordinated observations between MiXI and the STIX instrument onboard Solar Orbiter will enable solar flare observation from two vantage points, providing new insights into the directivity of flare HXR emission and will allow detailed study of both coronal and footpoint sources within the same flare. These results may have profound implications for theories of flare acceleration processes.
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