Paper
24 August 2021 FOXSI-4: the high resolution focusing X-ray rocket payload to observe a solar flare
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The FOXSI-4 sounding rocket will fly a significantly upgraded instrument in NASA's first solar are campaign. It will deploy direct X-ray focusing optics which have revolutionized our understanding of astrophysical phenomena. For example, they have allowed NuSTAR to provide X-ray imaging and IXPE (scheduled for launch in 2021) to provide X-ray polarization observations with detectors with higher photon rate capability and greater sensitivity than their predecessors. The FOXSI sounding rocket is the first solar dedicated mission using this method and has demonstrated high sensitivity and improved imaging dynamic range with its three successful flights. Although the building blocks are already in place for a FOXSI satellite instrument, further advances are needed to equip the next generation of solar X-ray explorers. FOXSI-4 will develop and implement higher angular resolution optics/detector pairs to investigate fine spatial structures (both bright and faint) in a solar are. FOXSI-4 will use highly polished electroformed Wolter-I mirrors fabricated at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), together with finely pixelated Si CMOS sensors and fine-pitch CdTe strip detectors provided by a collaboration with institutes in Japan. FOXSI-4 will also implement a set of novel perforated attenuators that will enable both the low and high energy spectral components to be observed simultaneously in each pixel, even at the high rates expected from a medium (or large) size solar are. The campaign will take place during one of the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) perihelia, allowing coordination between this spacecraft and other instruments which observe the Sun at different wavelengths.
© (2021) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas, Juliana Vievering, Sophie Musset, Lindsay Glesener, P.S. Athiray, Wayne Baumgartner, Stephen Bongiorno, Patrick Champey, Steven Christe, Sasha Courtade, Gregory Dalton, Jessie Duncan, Kelsey Gilchrist, Shin-nosuke Ishikawa, Christine Jhabvala, Hunter Kanniainen, Säm Krucker, Kyle Gregory, Juan Carlos Martinez Oliveros, Jeff McCracken, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Noriyuki Narukage, Athanasios Pantazides, Eliad Peretz, Savannah Perez-Piel, Aruna Ramanayaka, Brian Ramsey, Danny Ryan, Sabrina Savage, Tadayuki Takahashi, Shin Watanabe, Amy Winebarger, and Yixian Zhang "FOXSI-4: the high resolution focusing X-ray rocket payload to observe a solar flare", Proc. SPIE 11821, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXII, 118210L (24 August 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2594701
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KEYWORDS
Sensors

X-ray optics

X-rays

Rockets

Solar processes

CMOS sensors

Attenuators

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