Students at the University of Colorado Boulder have built a miniature satellite to examine solar flares erupting from the surface of the sun. Their CubeSat features (and is named after) a miniature X-ray solar spectrometer (MinXSS) designed by the university; it will be launched from the International Space Station next January. Its onboard control system — developed by Boulder-based Blue Canyon Technologies — will point the satellite towards the sun.

Once MinXSS is in position, its miniaturised instruments — about the size of a mobile phone — will begin to measure the X-ray radiation from the sun. This will help scientists to determine where in the atmosphere the energy gets deposited and what communication frequencies could be affected. Over the six- to 12-month duration of the mission, there should be dozens — if not hundreds — of solar flares for MinXSS to study in detail.

The MinXSS satellite began three years ago as a graduate student project in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at University of Colorado Boulder. Since then, about 50 graduate and undergraduate students have designed and built the miniature satellite, which is said to be about the size of a loaf of bread.

Tom Woods, associate director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the university, said: “Understanding space weather is important because of the large number of navigation and communications systems that can be impacted. For example, communication disruptions by a space weather event can force airlines to change their routes and can impact GPS navigation, which is used for myriad applications.”