The current American programme now renamed UNEX for UNiversity EXplorers is intended to show that satellites can be built cheaper than traditional programmes and at the same time maximise the benefit to society by involving students as part of their educational experience. The response to this challenge was significant. Over 90 institutions made up of universities, industry and government labs responded with 66 of them actually submitting full proposals. The University of Leicester is collaborating with the University of New Hampshire over the SXR experiment. Each detector is cooled to near 230K by their deep space pointed radiator surfaces.
Opening doors protect the detectors during launch and act as sun shields when in orbit.
The University of Leicester has agreed to undertake the mechanical and themal design of the structure together with the detector design and calibration. This page was updated on 8th.