The JANUS X-Ray Flash Monitor
  JANUS is a NASA small explorer class mission which just completed phase A and
was intended for a 2013 launch date. The primary science goals of JANUS are to
use high redshift (6<z<12) gamma ray bursts and quasars to explore the
formation history of the first stars in the early universe and to study
contributions to reionization. The X-Ray Flash Monitor (XRFM) and the Near-IR
Telescope (NIRT) are the two primary instruments on JANUS. XRFM has been
designed to detect bright X-ray flashes (XRFs) and gamma ray bursts (GRBs) in
the 1-20 keV energy band over a wide field of view (4 steradians), thus
facilitating the detection of z>6 XRFs/GRBs, which can be further studied by
other instruments. XRFM would use a coded mask aperture design with hybrid CMOS
Si detectors. It would be sensitive to XRFs/GRBs with flux in excess of
approximately 240 mCrab. The spacecraft is designed to rapidly slew to source
positions following a GRB trigger from XRFM. XRFM instrument design parameters
and science goals are presented in this paper.
