MiniCOR: A miniature coronagraph for an interplanetary CUBESAT

Coronagraphs occupy a unique place in Heliophysics, critical to both NASA and NOAA programs. They are the primary means for the study of the extended solar corona and its short and long term activity. In addition, coronagraphs are the only instrument that can image coronal mass ejections (CMEs) leaving the Sun and provide critical information for space weather forecasting. We describe a low cost miniaturized CubeSat coronagraph, MiniCOR, designed to operate in deep space, which will return data with higher cadence and sensitivity than that from the SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs. MiniCOR is a six unit (6U) sciencecraft with a tightly integrated, single instrument interplanetary flight system optimized for science. MiniCOR fully exploits recent technology advances in CubeSat technology and active pixel sensors. With a factor of 2.9 improvement in light gathering power over SOHO and quasi-continuous data collection, MiniCOR can observe the slow solar wind, CMEs and shocks with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to open new windows on our understanding of the inner heliosphere. An operating MiniCOR would provide coronagraphic observations in support of the upcoming Solar Probe Plus (SPP) and Solar Orbiter (SO) missions.