1. HERMES Pathfinder & SpIRIT: a progress report
- Author
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Fiore, F., Trenti, M., Evangelista, Y., Campana, R., Baroni, G., Ceraudo, F., Citossi, M., Della Casa, G., Dilillo, G., Feroci, M., Fiorini, M., Ghirlanda, G., Labanti, C., La Rosa, G., Marchesini, E. J., Morgante, G., Nava, L., Nogara, P., Nuti, A., Perri, M., Russo, F., Sottile, G., Colagrossi, M. Lavagna. A., Silvestrini, S., Quirino, M., Bechini, M., Bianchi, L., Brandonisio, A., De Cecio, F., Dottori, A., Troisi, I., Bertuccio, G., Mele, F., Negri, B., Bertacin, R., Grappasonni, C., Piazzolla, R., Pirrotta, S., Puccetti, S., Rinaldi, M., Tiberia, A., Burderi, L., Sanna, A., Riggio, A., Cabras, C., Tsvetkova, A., Santangelo, A., Guzman, A., Hedderman, P., Cagallero, S. Pliego, Tenzer, C., Vacchi, A., Zampa, N., Crupi, R., Bellutti, P., Demenev, E., Ficorella, F., Novel, D., Pepponi, G., Picciotto, A., Zorzi, N., Grassi, M., Malcovati, P., Di Salvo, T., Leone, W., Trevisan, S., Rashevskaya, I, Rachevski, A., Zampa, G., Chen, T., Gao, N., Xiong, S., Yi, S., Zhang, S., del Castillo, M. Ortiz, Mearns, R., McRobbie, J., Chapman, A., Thomas, M., Woods, A., Morgan, J., Barraclough, S., Werner, N., Ripa, J., Munz, F., Pal, A., Gacnik, D., Hudrap, A., Selkan, D., and Calves, G. Molera
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics - Abstract
HERMES Pathfinder is an in-orbit demonstration consisting of a constellation of six 3U cubesats hosting simple but innovative X-ray/gamma-ray detectors for the monitoring of cosmic high-energy transients. HERMES-PF, funded by ASI and by the EC Horizon 2020 grant, is scheduled for launch in Q1 2025. An identical X-ray/gamma-ray detector is hosted by the Australian 6U cubesat SpIRIT, launched on December 1st 2023. The main objective of HERMES-PF/SpIRIT is to demonstrate that high energy cosmic transients can be detected efficiently by miniatured hardware and localized using triangulation techniques. The HERMES-PF X-ray/gamma-ray detector is made by 60 GAGG:Ce scintillator crystals and 12 2x5 silicon drift detector (SDD) mosaics, used to detect both the cosmic X-rays directly and the optical photons produced by gamma-ray interactions with the scintillator crystals. This design provides a unique broad band spectral coverage from a few keV to a few MeV. Furthermore, the use of fast GAGG:Ce crystals and small SDD cells allows us to reach an exquisite time resolution better than a microsecond. We present a progress report on the missions focusing the discussion on the scientific innovation of the project and on the main lessons learned during the project development including: the importance and the challenges of using distributed architectures to achieve ambitious scientific objectives; the importance of developing critical technologies under science agreements for the realization of high-performing but low-cost payloads; best use of COTS technologies in scientific missions. We finally discuss the prospects of applying these concepts for the creation of an all-sky, all-time monitor to search for the high-energy counterparts of gravitational wave events that Advanced LIGO/Virgo/Kagra will find at the end of this decade and the Einstein Telescope during the 2030s., Comment: proceedings of the 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Milan, Italy, 14-18 October 2024
- Published
- 2025