The scientific payload on-board the HERMES-TP and HERMES-SP CubeSat missions
Y. Evangelista, F. Fiore, Fabio Fuschino, R. Campana, Francesco Ceraudo, Evgeny Demenev, A. Guzmán, C. Labanti, G. La Rosa, M. Fiorini, Massimo Gandola, M. Grassi, Filippo Mele, G. Morgante, Paolo Nogara, Raffaele Piazzolla, Samuel Pliego Caballero, I. Rashevskaya, Francesco Paolo Russo, Giulia Sciarrone, G. Sottile, Dorottya Milánkovich, András Pál, Filippo Ambrosino, N. Auricchio, Marco Barbera, P. Bellutti, G. Bertuccio, G. Borghi, Jiewei Cao, Tianxiang Chen, Giuseppe Dilillo, M. Feroci, F. Ficorella, Ugo Lo Cicero, Piero Malcovati, Alfredo Morbidini, Giovanni Pauletta, A. Picciotto, A. Rachevski, A. Santangelo, Chistoph Tenzer, A. Vacchi, Ling‐Jun Wang, Y. P. Xu, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, N. Zorzi, L. Burderi, Michèle Lavagna, Roberto Bertacin, Paolo Lunghi, Ángel Monge, Barbara Negri, Simone Pirrotta, Simonetta Puccetti, A. Sanna, Fabrizio Amarilli, Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Michele Bechini, Marco Citossi, Andrea Colagrossi, Serena Curzel, Giovanni Della Casa, Marco Cinelli, M. Del Santo, T. Di Salvo, C. Feruglio, Fabrizio Ferrandi, Michele Fiorito, Dejan Gačnik, Gábor Galgóczi, A. F. Gambino, G. Ghirlanda, A. Gomboc, M. Karlica, Pavel Efremov, Uroš Kostić, Aurora Clerici, Borja Lopez Fernandez, A. Maselli, Lara Nava, M. Ohno, Daniele Ottolina, Andrea Pasquale, Matteo Perri, Margherita Piccinin, Jacopo Prinetto, A. Riggio, J. Řípa, Alessandro Papitto, S. Piranomonte, Francesca Scala, David Selčan, Stefano Silvestrini, Tomaž Rotovnik, Enrico Virgilli, Ivan Troisi, Norbert Werner, Giovanni Zanotti
Abstract
HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Technological and Scientific pathfinder is a space borne mission based on a LEO constellation of nano-satellites. The 3U CubeSat buses host new miniaturized detectors to probe the temporal emission of bright high-energy transients such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). Fast transient localization, in a field of view of several steradians and with arcmin-level accuracy, is gained by comparing time delays among the same event detection epochs occurred on at least 3 nano-satellites. With a launch date in 2022, HERMES transient monitoring represents a keystone capability to complement the next generation of gravitational wave experiments. In this paper we will illustrate the HERMES payload design, highlighting the technical solutions adopted to allow a wide-energy-band and sensitive X-ray and gamma-ray detector to be accommodated in a Cubesat 1U volume together with its complete control electronics and data handling system.