Science prospects of the improved X-ray Detector iXRD on 3U CubeSat Sharjah-Sat-1

Nanosatellites with science payloads have entered the high energy astrophysics domain and expected to contribute to high-quality science together with the conventional large observatories. Small satellites focus on science that deemed as poor use of large observatories (surveys, background observations, extremely long observations of bright objects), yet, such long observations are very valuable to uncover the nature of interesting X-ray sources such as black holes and neutron stars. Given that large observatories can only be built by developed countries with strong economical, scientific and technological establishment, nanosatellites pave the way for developing countries to strengthen their experience in space technology as well as contributing to world-class science.

Our group has been working on CdZnTe based detector systems to be utilized in small satellites. Our first detector XRD is in orbit on the 2U BeEagleSat CubeSat with the main aim of measuring hard X-ray background at low Earth orbit and to catch gamma-ray bursts. Currently, we have been working an improved version of this system (iXRD) with a larger collecting area and detector thickness, a collimator to limit the field of view, and improved electronic design. We are planning to test the iXRD on 3U CubeSat Sharjah-Sat-1. The science prospects of the iXRD are very long observations of bright compact objects, solar observations, and cosmic hard X-ray background. In this work, we will describe the iXRD and discuss the functional requirements of the subsystems for each of the science prospects.