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CXBN: a blueprint for an improved measurement of the cosmological x-ray background

2012; SPIE; Volume: 8507; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.953573

1996-756X

Lance M. Simms, J. G. Jernigan, Benjamin K. Malphrus, Roger McNeil, Kevin Brown, Tyler Rose, Hyoung Sup Lim, S. Eric Anderson, Jeffrey Kruth, J. Doty, Matthew Wampler-Doty, L. R. Cominsky, Kamal S. Prasad, Eric Thomas, Michael Combs, Robert T. Kroll, Benjamin J. Cahall, Tyler T. Turba, Brandon Molton, Margaret M. Powell, Jonathan Fitzpatrick, D. C. Graves, Stephen D. Gaalema, Shunming Sun,

Advanced Semiconductor Detectors and Materials

A precise measurement of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) is crucial for constraining models of the evolution and composition of the universe. While several large, expensive satellites have measured the CXB as a secondary mission, there is still disagreement about normalization of its spectrum. The Cosmic X-ray Background NanoSat (CXBN) is a small, low-cost satellite whose primary goal is to measure the CXB over its two-year lifetime. Benefiting from a low instrument-induced background due to its small mass and size, CXBN will use a novel, pixelated Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector with energy resolution < 1 keV over the range 1-60 keV to measure the CXBN with unprecedented accuracy. This paper describes CXBN and its science payload, including the GEANT4 model that has been used to predict overall performance and the backgrounds from secondary particles in Low Earth Orbit. It also addresses the strategy for scanning the sky and calibrating the data, and presents the expected results over the two-year mission lifetime.