First flight in space of a wide-field-of-view soft x-ray imager using lobster-eye optics: Instrument description and initial flight results

Michael R. Collier (1) , Frederik S. Porter (1) , David G. Sibeck (1) , Jenny A. Carter (2) , Meng P. Chiao (1) , Dennis J. Chornay (1) , Thomas E. Cravens (3) , Massimiliano Galeazzi (4) , John W. Keller (1) , Dimitra Koutroumpa (5) , Joseph Kujawski (6) , Kip Kuntz (7) , Andy M. Read (2) , Ina P. Robertson (3) , Steve Sembay (2) , Steven L. Snowden (1) , Nicholas Thomas (1) , Youaraj Uprety (4) , Brian M. Walsh (8)

1 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Leicester]
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Lawrence Kansas]
4 Department of Physics [Coral Gables]
5 HELIOS - LATMOS
6 Department of Physics [Loudonville]
7 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Baltimore]
8 SSL - Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley]

We describe the development, launch into space, and initial results from a prototype wide field-of-view soft X-ray imager that employs lobster-eye optics and targets heliophysics, planetary, and astrophysics science. The sheath transport observer for the redistribution of mass is the first instrument using this type of optics launched into space and provides proof-of-concept for future flight instruments capable of imaging structures such as the terrestrial cusp, the entire dayside magnetosheath from outside the magnetosphere, comets, the Moon, and the solar wind interaction with planetary bodies like Venus and Mars

Domains: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]

Michael R. Collier, Frederik S. Porter, David G. Sibeck, Jenny A. Carter, Meng P. Chiao, et al.. First flight in space of a wide-field-of-view soft x-ray imager using lobster-eye optics: Instrument description and initial flight results. Review of Scientific Instruments, 2015, 86 (7), pp.071301. ⟨10.1063/1.4927259⟩. ⟨insu-01182800⟩