Nicholas Thomas (ST12) hosted Ric Brunio of the Center for Astrophysics- Harvard & Smithsonian (SAO) to calibrate the Miniature X-ray Optics (MiXO) project at the Marshall 100-Meter X-ray Beamline/Stray Light Test Facility. MiXO is an on-going mission to develop metal/ceramic hybrid lightweight x-ray optics deployable on SmallSats. Once developed, these optics would be used for the study of the elemental abundance of airless planetary bodies. The MiXO’s project’s Principal Investigator is Suzanne Romaine of SAO and is developed through the Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations (PICASSO) program.

Calibration of the Miniature X-ray Optics (MiXO) Project at the Marshall 100-meter X-ray Beamline/Stray Light Test Facility