A photograph of the FOXSI team in front of the FOXSI-2 sounding rocket on the launch pad.
The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, or FOXSI, is asounding rocket payload built byUC Berkeley and led by Säm Krucker to test high energy grazing-incidence focusing optics paired with solid-state pixelated detectors to observe theSun. FOXSI is composed of seven identicalWolter-I telescope modules, as well asSilicon andCadmium Telluride strip detectors originally developed for the HXT telescope on the JapaneseHitomi mission. The FOXSI payload flew two times,most recently in 2014[1][2] and previously in2012, on theBlack Brant IX sounding rocket. Like most sounding rockets, FOXSI flew for approximately 15 minutes per mission and observed the Sun for about 5 minutes while in space. During its first flight, FOXSI successfully imaged a solarmicroflare in thehard x-ray band for the first time.[3]
FOXSI's third mission, led byLindsay Glesener of theUniversity of Minnesota, had a successful launch on September 7, 2018, fromWhite Sands, New Mexico. This iteration of the payload included a combination of Silicon and improved Cadmium Telluride detectors,[4] as well as one CMOS soft x-ray detector. Two of the telescope modules were updated from 7-shell to 10-shell configurations, and the payload also introducedcollimator technology to reduce the impact of singly-reflected rays.[5]
^Ishikawa, S.; Katsuragawa, M.; Watanabe, S.; Uchida, Y.; Takeda, S.; Takahashi, T.; Saito, S.; Glesener, L.; Buitrago-Casas, J. C. (2016). "Fine-pitch CdTe detector for hard X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of the Sun with the FOXSI rocket experiment".Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.121 (7):6009–6016.arXiv:1606.03887.Bibcode:2016JGRA..121.6009I.doi:10.1002/2016ja022631.ISSN2169-9402.S2CID119179961.
^Buitrago-Casas, J. C.; Glesener, L.; Christe, S.; Ramsey, B.; Elsner, R.; Courtade, S.; Vievering, J.; Subramania, A.; Krucker, S.; Bale, S. (2017). "Methods for reducing singly reflected rays on the Wolter-I focusing mirrors of the FOXSI rocket experiment".Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy VIII. Proceedings of SPIE. Vol. 10399. p. 103990J.Bibcode:2017SPD....4830504B.doi:10.1117/12.2274675.ISBN9781510612556.S2CID21391189.
