[P-EM11] Dynamics of Magnetosphere and Ionosphere

[PEM11-30] Development of a miniaturized X-ray imager for GEOspace X-ray imager (GEO-X)

*Kumi Ishikawa¹, Yuichiro Ezoe², Masaki Numazawa², Daiki Ishi², Maiko Fujitani², Ryota Otsubo², Aoto Fukushima², Hikari Suzuki², Tatsuya Yuasa², Hiroshi Nakajima³, Junko Hiraga⁴, Yoshizumi Miyoshi⁵, Satoshi Kasahara⁶, Kazuhisa Mitsuda¹ (1.Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/Institute of Space and Astronautical Science , 2.Tokyo Metropolitan University, 3.Kanto Gakuin University, 4.Kwansei Gakuin University, 5.Nagoya University, 6.The university of Tokyo)

Keywords:X-ray, magnetosphere

A reduction in weight of instrument, especially optics, is a key technique for explorers or small satellite missions. GEO-X (GEOspace X-ray imager) is a Japanese small satellite mission for X-ray observations
of the dayside boundaries of the Earth’s magnetosphere. An instrument is composed of a X-ray telescope
and a radio hard semiconductor pixel detector. Conventional X-ray optics have a trend that optics with better angular resolution have larger ratio of the weight to effective area. Therefore, it is difficult to utilize them for the X-ray planetary mission which has a severe weight limit. Micro pore optics are being developed based on a concept of a miniature optics. An original micro pore optics based on Si micromachining technologies will be used. A CMOS image sensor and a DEPFET (DEPleted P-Channle FET) are candidates for the X-ray detector. These new type semiconductor detectors are radiation hard and have optical light resistance, which are crucial in GEO-X to observe magnetosheaths and cusps near the dayside of the Earth. We report a summary of the instrument design and development for GEO-X.