Monitor of All-Sky X-Ray Image on "KIBO"
- Paper number
IAC-05-B5.2.07
- Author
Mr. Kazuyoshi Kawasaki, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) mission and its development status will be described. MAXI is an astronomical observation mission that will be attached to the Japanese Experiment Module \"Kibo\" of the International Space Station. MAXI will be launched by Japanese H-IIA Transfer Vehicle (HTV) and attached to Kibo’s Exposed Facility in 2008. The flight components of MAXI are being manufactured and tested. The detector of the MAXI is composed of slit cameras that can scan almost the entire sky by utilizing ISS’s attitude change during its 90-minute orbit without using any pointing mechanism. MAXI will be able to monitor and detect the activities of extra-galactic objects with reasonable sensitivity for the study of the activity of faint extra-galactic objects such as quasars, Seyfert galaxies and jets. The X-ray instrumentation of MAXI is composed of the Gas Slit Camera (GSC) and the Solid-state Slit Camera (SSC). The GSC uses one-dimensional position sensitive gas proportional counters and the SSC uses X-ray CCDs. The GSC is composed of 12 proportional gas counters which are sensitive to photons with energies in the 2-30 keV and has an effective area of 6000 cm**2 total. The SSC is a CCD camera, which uses 32 CCD chips with energy resolution of 135 eV at 5.9keV FWHM. The CCD chips are cooled to –60 degree C by Peltier coolers and heats from the heaters are transported by Loop Heat Pipe Radiator System (LHPRS). The commands and observed data will be up- or down-linked by existing ground control facilities for the ISS. Especially, the discovery of X-ray novae and gamma-ray bursts with MAXI will be promptly disseminated all over the world through the Internet at almost real time. To utilize the ISS and Kibo system at their best, there are some challenges in MAXI’s design and development. I will also introduce these experiences for future utilization of ISS.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-B5.2.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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