We report on the on-orbit performance of the Glowbug instrument, which operated on the International Space Station (ISS) from March 2023 to April 2024. Glowbug is a NASA Astrophysics Research and Analysis (APRA) funded instrument built by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC, and is the pathfinder instrument for the upcoming NASA StarBurst Multimessenger Pioneers mission. Glowbug was launched to the ISS on the 27th Commercial Resupply Services mission operated by SpaceX (SpX-27) as part of the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) H9 pallet. Glowbug’s primary science objective is the detection and localization of short Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), which are the result of mergers of stellar binaries involving a neutron star with either another neutron star or a black hole. Detection is enabled by 12 large area (150mm x 150mm), inorganic scintillator panels (thallium-doped cesium iodide, CsI:Tl), arrayed on the surface of a half cube. Each panel is read out on one edge by a 1x21 array of onsemi J-series 6mm x 6mm silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Additionally, within the half cube, resides two inorganic scintillators, Cs2LiLaBr6:Ce (CLLB), and a small plastic (EJ-200) scintillator on the exterior used as an South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) entry and exit detector, both of which are read out by an array of SiPMs on one face of each detector unit. We discuss the Glowbug on-orbit results for one year’s worth of data, in terms of on-orbit operations, SiPM performance in low-earth orbit (LEO), and GRB detections.
The ComPair gamma-ray telescope is a technology demonstrator for a future gamma-ray telescope called the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO). The instrument is composed of four subsystems, a double-sided silicon strip detector, a virtual Frisch grid CdZnTe calorimeter, a CsI:Tl based calorimeter, and an anti-coincidence detector (ACD). The CsI calorimeter's goal is to measure the position and energy deposited from high-energy events. To demonstrate the technological readiness, the calorimeter has flown onboard a NASA scientific balloon as part of the GRAPE-ComPair mission and accumulated around 3 hours of float time at an altitude of 40 km. During the flight, the CsI calorimeter observed background radiation, Regener-Pfotzer Maximum, and several gamma-ray activation lines originating from aluminum.
The Neutron Radiation Detection Instrument-1A (NeRDI-1A) is a neutron sensor on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) mission STP-H9. NeRDI-1A uses the scintillator Tl2LiYCl6:Ce as well as three Domino microstructured semiconductor neutron detectors (MSNDs) with varying levels of moderation and an EJ-270 plastic scintillator. The primary objective of NeRDI-1A is to space qualify TLYC and MSND detectors by studying the effects of on-orbit radiation background on the performance of these detectors over the nominal one-year mission. NeRDI-1A was launched to the ISS on 15 March 2023 GMT aboard SpX-27.
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