Related papers: NinjaSat: Astronomical X-ray CubeSat Observatory
The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a NASA-funded astrophysics mission, devoted to the study of the ultraviolet (UV) time-domain behavior in low-mass stars. Given their abundance and size, low-mass stars are important…
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is a NASA Small Explorer mission that will carry the first focusing hard X-ray (5 -- 80 keV) telescope to orbit. NuSTAR will offer a factor 50 -- 100 sensitivity improvement compared to…
Gamma-Ray Integrated Detectors (GRID) mission is a student project designed to use multiple gamma-ray detectors carried by nanosatellites (CubeSats), forming a full-time all-sky gamma-ray detection network that monitors the transient…
In this work, we report the in-orbit demonstration of X-ray pulsar navigation with Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), which was launched on Jun. 15th, 2017. The new pulsar navigation method 'Significance Enhancement of…
Accurate and stable spacecraft pointing is a requirement of many astronomical observations. Pointing particularly challenges nanosatellites because of an unfavorable surface area to mass ratio and proportionally large volume required for…
CUBES is a X-ray detector payload which will be installed on the KTH 3U CubeSat mission, MIST. The detector comprises cerium-doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 (GAGG) scintillators read out with silicon photomultipliers through a Citiroc…
HaloSat is a small satellite (CubeSat) designed to map soft X-ray oxygen line emission across the sky in order to constrain the mass and spatial distribution of hot gas in the Milky Way. The goal of HaloSat is to help determine if hot gas…
The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a 6U CubeSat under development to monitor the flaring and chromospheric activity of M dwarfs at near-ultraviolet (NUV) and far-ultraviolet (FUV) wavelengths. The spacecraft hosts two…
GRBAlpha is a 1U CubeSat launched in March 2021 to a sun-synchronous LEO at an altitude of 550 km to perform an in-orbit demonstration of a novel gamma-ray burst detector developed for CubeSats. VZLUSAT-2 followed ten months later in a…
The Crab nebula is so far the only celestial object with a statistically significant detection in soft x-ray polarimetry, a window that has not been explored in astronomy since the 1970s. However, soft x-ray polarimetry is expected to be a…
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is the first focusing hard X-ray mission in orbit and operates in the 3-79 keV range. NuSTAR's sensitivity is roughly two orders of magnitude better than previous missions in this energy…
The Pandora SmallSat is a NASA flight project aimed at studying the atmospheres of exoplanets -- planets orbiting stars outside our Solar System. Pandora will provide the first dataset of simultaneous, multiband (visible and NIR),…
Due to the advancement of nano-satellite technology, CubeSats and fleets of CubeSats can form an alternative to high-cost large-size satellite missions with the advantage of extended spatial coverage. One of these initiatives is the…
The goal of the Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat is to explore the energy distribution of soft X-ray (SXR) emissions from the quiescent Sun, active regions, and during solar flares, and to model the impact on Earth's…
We report results from a study of XTE J1739-285, a transient neutron star low mass X-ray binary observed with AstroSat and NuSTAR during its 2019-2020 outburst. We detected accretion-powered X-ray pulsations at 386 Hz during very short…
Atmospheric drag calculation error greatly reduce the low-earth orbit spacecraft trajectory prediction fidelity. To solve the issue, the "correction - prediction" strategy is usually employed. In the method, one parameter is fixed and other…
The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a near-diffraction-limited 0.5m telescope that launched via NASA's super-pressure balloon technology on April 16, 2023. SuperBIT achieved precise pointing control through the…
The Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) is a Canadian-led 15 cm Earth-orbiting telescope originally designed to detect asteroids near the Sun. Its design is however also suitable for the observation of exoplanetary transits…
The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) are twin 3U CubeSats. The first of the twin CubeSats (MinXSS-1) launched in December 2015 to the International Space Station for deployment in mid-2016. Both MinXSS CubeSats utilize a…
The X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission XMM-Newton is ESA's largest observatory so far; it is dedicated to explore the Universe in the 0.2 - 15 keV X-ray band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because of its large collecting area very faint sources…