Early results from GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2

Jakub Řípa; András Pál; Masanori Ohno; Norbert Werner; László Mészáros; Balázs Csák; Marianna Dafčíková; Vladimír Dániel; Juraj Dudáš; Marcel Frajt; Peter Hanák; Ján Hudec; Milan Junas; Jakub Kapuš; Miroslav Kasal; Martin Koleda; Robert Laszlo; Pavol Lipovsky; Filip Münz; Maksim Rezenov; Miroslav Šmelko; Petr Svoboda; Hiromitsu Takahashi; Martin Topinka; Tomáš Urbanec; Jean-Paul Breuer; Teruaki Enoto; Zsolt Frei; Yasushi Fukazawa; Gábor Galgóczi; Filip Hroch; Yuto Ichinohe; László L. Kiss; Hiroto Matake; Tsunefumi Mizuno; Kazuhiro Nakazawa; Hirokazu Odaka; Helen Poon; Nagomi Uchida; Yuusuke Uchida

doi:10.1117/12.2629332

31 August 2022 Early results from GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2

Jakub Řípa, András Pál, Masanori Ohno, Norbert Werner, László Mészáros, Balázs Csák, Marianna Dafčíková, Vladimír Dániel, Juraj Dudáš, Marcel Frajt, Peter Hanák, Ján Hudec, Milan Junas, Jakub Kapuš, Miroslav Kasal, Martin Koleda, Robert Laszlo, Pavol Lipovsky, Filip Münz, Maksim Rezenov, Miroslav Šmelko, Petr Svoboda, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Martin Topinka, Tomáš Urbanec, Jean-Paul Breuer, Teruaki Enoto, Zsolt Frei, Yasushi Fukazawa, Gábor Galgóczi, Filip Hroch, Yuto Ichinohe, László L. Kiss, Hiroto Matake, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Hirokazu Odaka, Helen Poon, Nagomi Uchida, Yuusuke Uchida

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 121811K (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629332
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

We present the detector performance and early science results from GRBAlpha, a 1U CubeSat mission, which is a technological pathfinder to a future constellation of nanosatellites monitoring gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBAlpha was launched in March 2021 and operates on a 550 km altitude sun-synchronous orbit. The gamma-ray burst detector onboard GRBAlpha consists of a 75×75×5 mm CsI(Tl) scintillator, read out by a dual-channel multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) setup. It is sensitive in the ∼30−900 keV range. The main goal of GRBAlpha is the in-orbit demonstration of the detector concept, verification of the detector’s lifetime, and measurement of the background level on low-Earth orbit, including regions inside the outer Van Allen radiation belt and in the South Atlantic anomaly. GRBAlpha has already detected five, both long and short, GRBs and two bursts were detected within a time-span of only 8 hours, proving that nanosatellites can be used for routine detection of gamma-ray transients. For one GRB, we were able to obtain a high resolution spectrum and compare it with measurements from the Swift satellite. We find that, due to the variable background, the time fraction of about 67% of the low-Earth polar orbit is suitable for gamma-ray burst detection. One year after launch, the detector

Conference Presentation

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Jakub Řípa, András Pál, Masanori Ohno, Norbert Werner, László Mészáros, Balázs Csák, Marianna Dafčíková, Vladimír Dániel, Juraj Dudáš, Marcel Frajt, Peter Hanák, Ján Hudec, Milan Junas, Jakub Kapuš, Miroslav Kasal, Martin Koleda, Robert Laszlo, Pavol Lipovsky, Filip Münz, Maksim Rezenov, Miroslav Šmelko, Petr Svoboda, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Martin Topinka, Tomáš Urbanec, Jean-Paul Breuer, Teruaki Enoto, Zsolt Frei, Yasushi Fukazawa, Gábor Galgóczi, Filip Hroch, Yuto Ichinohe, László L. Kiss, Hiroto Matake, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Hirokazu Odaka, Helen Poon, Nagomi Uchida, and Yuusuke Uchida "Early results from GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2", Proc. SPIE 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 121811K (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629332

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