MAXIM science and technology

The Micro Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission (MAXIM) has been proposed to NASA in response to the Black Hole Imager line in the newly created "Beyond Einstein" program. Meeting the scientific goals of event horizon imaging has created a new set of technical challenges for the Maxim team. Certainly the most difficult of these is the need for 0.1 micro-arcsecond resolution imaging in the x-ray. We will review the key scientific challenges and show how they flow down into instrument requirements. We will then review our baseline design, discuss the array of technical challenges facing Maxim, and present the current status of our technology.