A cubesat experiment to detect cosmic explosions in hard X rays

With the recent explosive expansion of the cubesat-based satellites, new low-cost, rapid-development opportunities to launch scientific experiments in low-Earth orbit have materialized. Here we report the development of the LECX astrophysical experiment that will be the payload of a 2U cubesat satellite (nanoMIRAX) to be launched in the near future. The mission will detect, take spectra and localize in the sky cosmic explosions on the 30-200 keV energy range. In the current gravitational wave era, it is of paramount importance to patrol the sky for electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events. The instrument employs 4 CdZnTe X-ray detectors in a 2x2 configuration. Each detector is a 10mm x 10mm square with a thickness of 2mm. The detector plane is surrounded on the lateral and back sides by a passive graded shield. The field-of-view is 53^o x 53^o FWHM and 90^o x 90^o FWZI. A new method for the determination of the incidence direction of a point source can achieve a position accuracy of a few degrees for a typical GRB. The achievable sensitivities in 10-keV energy bins permit highly significant detections of Gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic explosions at a possible rate of 2 each month. In addition, the nanosat will be a test bed for technology being developed in the framework of the MIRAX project, a hard X-ray imaging and monitoring satellite mission. In this talk we will present the nanoMIRAX satellite project and demonstrate its capabilities for the detection of cosmic explosions in the hard X-ray range.