14/06/2024
1657 views
9 holds
Europe’s newest rocket will soon be launched, bringing with it many space missions, each with a unique purpose, a unique destination and a unique team back home to cheer them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study the Earth, to look into deep space or to test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will demonstrate its versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy launch vehicle. Read on to learn all about GRBBeta and see who else will fly first.
GRBBeta is a successor to the world’s smallest astrophysical space observatory, GRBAlfha – the first CubeSat to detect a gamma-ray burst (GRB) from space; still working well after three years in orbit and more than 135 ‘transients’ detected so far.
GRBBeta in orbit – visualization
Building on the success of Alpha, GRBBeta will serve as a ‘testbed’ for a range of new technologies that will be critical to future constellations of GRB-sensing satellites and other CubeSat missions.
Gamma-ray bursts are extremely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the brightest and most extreme explosive events in the universe – a typical GRB will release as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun would during its entire 10 billion year lifespan.
Gamma ray burst illustration
GRBs are believed to be released during a hypernova – when a particularly massive star implodes violently, forming a neutron star or black hole. After a huge initial burst of gamma rays, an ‘afterglow’ emits longer wavelengths in X-rays, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwaves and radio.
The satellite’s main contractor is the Faculty of Aeronautics of Košice University of Technology, while Spacemanic, a turnkey provider of nanosatellite missions and manufacturer of CubeSat components based in the Czech Republic, has taken the lead in building the advanced two- unit (2U) GRBBeta CubeSat. Built in a Hungarian, Czech, Japanese and Canadian collaboration, the scientific payloads represent a significant leap forward in space technology.
The Spacemanic team
Hungary’s Konkoly Observatory led the development of GRBBeta’s gamma-ray burst detector, while the Czech Masaryk University led the analysis of scientific data. Japan’s Hiroshima University contributed significantly to the detector hardware, and Canada’s University of Toronto built an experimental mini-UV space telescope.
As with the GRBAlpha mission, Spacemanic was responsible for the overall construction of GRBBeta – from project management to mission design to building and integrating nearly all components and ground segment development.
Jakub Kapuš, CEO of Spacemanic
“GRBBeta is a collaborative project involving various technological innovations from multiple collaborators,” explains Jakub Kapuš, CEO of Spacemanic. “To put it simply, we wanted to find out how much science we could ‘pack’ into two units of space. The answer turns out to be ‘a lot’.
In addition to the gamma-ray burst experiment, GRBBeta also has amateur radio capabilities and several other experiments.
“One of the technologies under test that we are particularly excited about is the first large ultraviolet CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor from the University of Toronto Dunlap Institute,” continues Jakub Kapuš.
Semiconductor image sensors convert light into electrical signals and generally have higher resolution and lower power consumption than traditional charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors, i.e. cameras.
Daniela Jovic, CCO at Spacemanic
Ultimately, GRBBeta’s goal is to serve as an affordable astronomy-quality space camera with better or equal performance than prohibitively expensive alternatives.
“GRBAlpha has demonstrated that small CubeSats are capable of doing science in orbit at a fraction of the cost and time required to launch a standard full-scale satellite mission,” explains Daniela Jovic, CCO at Spacemanic, out.
“In this way, it opens the market to a wide range of countries, universities and research institutions that would otherwise not be able to get their experiments into space. Along the way, we are hopeful that the success of GRBBeta and the other smallsat missions we are preparing will serve as inspiration for the next big project in a small cube.”
Natalia Gogolová, mechanical engineer at Spacemanic
In addition to its astrophysical instruments, GRBBeta is also equipped with a Murgas ‘transceiver’ – a device that can both send and receive data – providing a unique opportunity for the global amateur radio community.
The satellite will be visible to the open-source SatNOGS network, so anyone with an internet connection can view live telemetry (data) from the comfort of their home via the Grafana Dashboard and monitor and monitor the little one’s health status. space wonder.
“It is truly an honor to be part of this milestone moment in European space exploration. Our team has poured their heart and soul into reaching this stage,” explains Natália Gogolová, mechanical engineer at Spacemanic.
“When GRBBeta left our office to head to the launch pad, it was a sentimental reminder of all the dedication and teamwork that got us to this point. The prospect of receiving the first signals from GRBBeta is absolutely exciting – we are all eagerly awaiting that moment.”