BurstCube: A CubeSat for gravitational wave counterparts

Authors

Jeremy S. Perkins, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Isabella Brewer, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Michael S. Briggs, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Alessandro Bruno, Catholic University of America
Eric Burns, Louisiana State University
Regina Caputo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Brad Cenko, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Antonino Cucchiara, University of the Virgin Islands
Georgia de Nolfo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Jeff Dumonthier, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sean Griffin, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lorraine Hanlon, University College Dublin
Dieter H. Hartmann, Clemson University
Boyan Hristov, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Michelle Hui, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Alyson Joens, The George Washington University
Carolyn Kierans, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Marc Kippen, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dan Kocevski, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
John Krizmanic, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sibasish Laha, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Amy Lien, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Israel Martinez-Castellanos, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sheila McBreen, University College Dublin
Julie E. McEnery, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
J. G. Mitchell, The George Washington University
Lee Mitchell, Naval Research Laboratory
David Morris, University of the Virgin Islands
David Murphy, University College Dublin
Judith L. Racusin, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Oliver Roberts, Universities Space Research Association
Peter Shawhan, University of Maryland, College Park
Jacob R. Smith, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Abstract

BurstCube aims to expand sky coverage in order to detect, localize, and rapidly disseminate information about gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). BurstCube is a'6U' CubeSat with an instrument comprised of 4 Cesium Iodide (CsI) scintillators coupled to arrays of Silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) and will be sensitive to gamma-rays between 50 keV and 1 MeV. BurstCube will assist current observatories, such as Swift and Fermi, in the detection of GRBs as well as provide astronomical context to gravitational wave (GW) events detected by LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. BurstCube is currently in its development phase with a launch readiness date in early 2022.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Recommended Citation

Perkins, J., Brewer, I., Briggs, M., Bruno, A., Burns, E., Caputo, R., Cenko, B., Cucchiara, A., de Nolfo, G., Dumonthier, J., Griffin, S., Hanlon, L., Hartmann, D., Hristov, B., Hui, M., Joens, A., Kierans, C., Kippen, M., Kocevski, D., Krizmanic, J., Laha, S., Lien, A., Martinez-Castellanos, I., McBreen, S., McEnery, J., Mitchell, J., Mitchell, L., Morris, D., Murphy, D., Racusin, J., Roberts, O., Shawhan, P., & Smith, J. (2020). BurstCube: A CubeSat for gravitational wave counterparts. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 11444 https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562796