MiSolFA

Abstract

The solar physics team at FHNW is the world leading group in the development and exploitation of indirect X-ray imaging systems for space applications. Already developed imagers equip the NASA RHESSI space mission, operating since 2002, and the STIX instrument of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission, to be launched in 2018. This new project pushes the technology beyond the current limits, in order to produce a very compact X-ray detector that can be flown on board of a small micro-satellite, to be launched with the support by the Italian Space Agency in 2020. New X-ray absorbing grids shall be developed as part of this project, with periods as small as one fifth of the diameter of a hair (10 microns), in order to obtain similar angular resolutions as STIX for the size restriction given by a micro-satellite (< 10x10x30 cm^3). For a regularly sized missions (~1x1x2 m^3), our new development will potentially improve the resolution by a factor of 10, making it possible to resolve structures on the Sun as fine as 150 km (0.2 arcsec). In addition to opening a new frontier in X-ray astrophysics, the development of these grids also boosts Swiss industry, with applications in the field of phase-contrast radiography, which have a potentially enormous market.