Hi-C Flare (CAPRI-SUN)
High-resolution Coronal Imager solar Flare campaign
high CAdence low-energy Passband x-Ray detector with Integrated full-SUN field of view
Mission Overview
The High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) is the main payload of a sounding rocket solar flare campaign (hence the name Hi-C Flare). The goals of the campaign are to acquire an extensive, multi-scale, multi-wavelengh observation of a solar flare and establish the capability of solar pointing missions within the sounding rocket program.
The high CAdence low-energy Passband x-Ray detector with Integrated full-SUN field of view (CAPRI-SUN) instrument is a solar disk integrated soft X-ray sensor designed, fabricated, and tested by SSEL students. CAPRI-SUN will obtain a soft X-ray (SXR) time series at an unprecedented 1 kHz cadence through the duration of solar pointing, providing the first high frequency measurement of flare variability in SXR.
Status
Hi-C Flare and its companion payloads, including CAPRI-SUN, were launched from the Poker Flatt Missile Range in Alaska on April 17, 2024. The flight was successful with all scientific payloads capturing images of an ongoing solar flare. The sounding rocket was recovered the following day after landing in deep snow.
After months of analysis and attempts at data recovery, CAPRI-SUN was concluded to have failed due to several design flaws and engineering failures. The most notable was a communication line flaw in the harness that connected CAPRI-SUN to the rocket's avionics. This flaw jumbled the data sent to the rocket's avionics, rendering the data from CAPRI-SUN incomprehensible to SSEL students.
A re-flight of CAPRI-SUN is being considered as another Hi-C Flare campaign is currently in the proposal stage. The SSEL team is evaluating the lessons learned from the first flight of the instrument to assess the needed changes on CAPRI-SUN if it were to fly again.
Development of the technology used in CAPRI-SUN will continue as it is adapted for use in the BUBO instrument payload for the MUSE satellite being constructed by Lockheed Martin.
CAPRI-SUN attached to front apeture plate for Hi-C Flare rocket
Exploded view of the CAPRI-SUN CAD model