SEAGULL Spacecraft - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft name	SEAGULL (SEArching origin of Gravitational wave by 3U SateLLrite)
Type	CubeSat
Units or mass	3U
Status	not launched, expected in 2026
Launcher	not launched
Organization	Aoyama Gakuin University
Institution	University
Entity	Academic / Education
Nation	Japan
Partners	Kanazawa University, Kwansei Gakuin University, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Oneliner	Searching the electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational waves in the soft Xray band (0.4 ~ 4 keV).
Description	In general, the error image region of the gravitational wave detectors ranges from a few square degrees to several hundred square degrees. To search for the origin of the gravitational waves or the energetic explosions such as the gamma-ray burst, X-ray observation covering a wide field of view with a good sensitivity is essential to achieve the goal. One of the good candidate instruments to achieve our goal is the combination of an X-ray optics called Lobster-eye optics (LEO) and a large area Si pixel imaging sensor. Furthermore, thanks to the light weight of LEO, it is possible to install on a small platform such as a CubeSat. Lobster eye optics (LEO) is an optics composed of many small square-sided tubes aligned along a sphere. LEO can cover a wide field of view in soft X-rays. Here, we introduce a future 3U CubeSat mission for searching the electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational waves in the soft X-ray band (0.4 ~ 10 keV) with ~arcmin localization accuracy. The pnCCD detector fabricated by PNSensor Inc. can achieve our mission requirements as an X-ray detector. To operate the pnCCD detector, we developed an FPGA-based fast readout system which is a very compact design to install on the CubeSat mission.Also, we investigate the readout noise of CAMEX, which is the readout ASIC of pnCCD. As a result, the readout noise was ~ 7.4 e-.
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Last modified: 2023-12-17