GRBAlpha
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is a 1U CubeSat in-orbit demonstration mission, carrying a 75 x 75 x 5 mm CsI(Tl) scintillator detector in order to detect gamma-ray bursts and similar high-energy counterparts of violent astrophysical events at the edges of our Universe. The satellite is built by a collaboration led by Konkoly Observatory of the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network along with Hiroshima University, Spacemanic s.r.o., Needronix s.r.o., Eötvös University, Nagoya University, Brno University of Technology and Masaryk University while the launch contract and radio license is provided by Technical University of Košice.
Our primary goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of the timing-based localization of such energetic phenomena with a fleet of nanosatellites bearing scaled-up versions of our detector setup. See also this paper about more details about GRBAlpha and this paperabout the Cubesats Applied for MEasuring and LOcalising Transients (CAMELOT) mission initiative!
The complete list of GRB and related detections are maintained by our group at Masaryk University.
After postponing two days, the launch took place at 2021-03-22, 06:07:12 UTC (07:07:12 Central European Time) and provided by GK Launch Services. Please follow their stream via YouTube! Our story can also be followed here, thanks to our friend, Miklós Vincze - at this moment only in Hungarian... just we are trying to catch up with ourselves!
