A review of requirements for gamma radiation detection in space using cubesats

Abstract

Initially intended as student-led projects at universities and research institutions, the Cube-Sats now represent a unique opportunity to access space quickly and in a cost-effective fashion. CubeSats are standard and miniaturized satellites consisting of multiple identical units with dimen-sions of about 10 × 10 × 10 cm3 and very limited power consumption (usually less than a few W). To date, several hundreds of CubeSats have been already launched targeting scientific, educational, technological, and commercial needs. Compact and highly efficient particle detectors suitable for payloads of miniaturized space missions can be a game changer for astronomy and astroparticle physics. For example, the origin of catastrophic astronomical events can be pinpointed with unprece-dented resolution by measuring the gamma-ray coincidence signals in CubeSats flying in formations, and possibly used as early warning system for multi messenger searches. In this paper, we will discuss and analyze the main features of a CubeSat mission targeting intense and short bursts of gamma-rays.