We propose a fleet of nanosatellites to perform an all-sky monitoring and timing based localisation of gamma-ray transients. The fleet of at least nine 3U cubesats shall be equipped with large and thin CsI(Tl) scintillator based soft gamma-ray detectors read out by multi-pixel photon counters. For bright short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), by cross-correlating their light curves, the fleet shall be able to determine the time difference of the arriving GRB signal between the satellites and thus determine the source position with an accuracy of ∼10′. This requirement demands precise time synchronization and accurate time stamping of the detected gamma-ray photons, which will be achieved by using on-board GPS receivers. Rapid follow up observations at other wavelengths require the capability for fast, nearly simultaneous downlink of data using a global inter-satellite communication network. In terms of all-sky coverage, the proposed fleet will outperform all GRB monitoring missions.
@article{arxiv.1806.03681,
title = {CAMELOT: Cubesats Applied for MEasuring and LOcalising Transients - Mission Overview},
author = {Norbert Werner and Jakub Řípa and András Pál and Masanori Ohno and Norbert Tarcai and Kento Torigoe and Koji Tanaka and Nagomi Uchida and László Mészáros and Gábor Galgóczi and Yasushi Fukazawa and Tsunefumi Mizuno and Hiromitsu Takahashi and Kazuhiro Nakazawa and Zsolt Várhegyi and Teruaki Enoto and Hirokazu Odaka and Yuto Ichinohe and Zsolt Frei and László Kiss},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.03681},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray