GEOspace X-ray imager (GEO-X)
Yuichiro Ezoe, Ryu Funase, Harunori Nagata, Yoshizumi Miyoshi, Hiroshi Nakajima, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Kumi Ishikawa, Masaki Numazawa, Yosuke Kawabata, S. Nakajima, Ryota Fuse, Ralf Boden, Landon T. Kamps, T. Yoneyama, K. Hagino, Yosuke Matsumoto, Keisuke Hosokawa, Satoshi Kasahara, Junko S. Hiraga, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, M. Fujimoto, Munetaka Ueno, Atsushi Yamazaki, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Takefumi Mitani, Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, Takahiro Iwata, Hiroyuki Koizumi, Hironori Sahara, Yoshiaki Kanamori, Kohei Morishita, Daiki Ishi, Aoto Fukushima, A. Inagaki, Yoko Ueda, Hiromi Morishita, Yukine Tsuji, Runa Sekiguchi, Takatoshi Murakawa, Kazuma Yamaguchi, Rei Ishikawa, Daiki Morimoto, Yudai Yamada, Shota Hirai, Yuki Nobuhara, Yownin Albert M. Leung, Yamato ITOIGAWA, Ryo Onodera, Satoru Kotaki, Shotaro Nakamura, Ayumi Kiuchi, Takuya Matsumoto, Midori Hirota, Kazuto Kashiwakura
Abstract
GEOspace X-ray imager (GEO-X) is a small satellite mission aiming at visualization of the Earth’s magnetosphere by X-rays and revealing dynamic couplings between solar wind and the magnetosphere. In-situ spacecraft have revealed various phenomena in the magnetosphere. X-ray astronomy satellite observations recently discovered soft X-ray emissions originating from the magnetosphere. We are developing GEO-X by integrating innovative technologies of a wide field of view (FOV) X-ray instrument and a small satellite for deep space exploration. The satellite combines a Cubesat and a hybrid kick motor, which can produce a large delta v to increase the altitude of the orbit to about 30 to 60 RE from a relatively low-altitude (e.g., geo transfer orbit) piggyback launch. GEO-X carries a wide FOV (5 × 5 deg) and a good spatial resolution (10 arcmin) X-ray (0.3 to 2 keV) imaging spectrometer using a micro-machined X-ray telescope and a CMOS detector system combined with an optical blocking filter. We aim to launch the satellite around the solar maximum of solar cycle 25.