AUTHOR=Inceoglu Fadil , Hernández Marcano Néstor J. , Jacobsen Rune H. , Karoff Christoffer 

TITLE=A General Overview for Localizing Short Gamma-Ray Bursts with a CubeSat Mega-Constellation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/astronomy-and-space-sciences/articles/10.3389/fspas.2020.573060

DOI=10.3389/fspas.2020.573060

ISSN=2296-987X

ABSTRACT=<p>The gamma-ray burst monitor (GBM) on the <italic>Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope</italic>, for the first time, detected a short gamma ray burst (SGRB) signal that accompanies a gravitational wave signal GW170817 in 2017. The detection and localization of the gravitational wave and gamma-ray source led all other space- and ground-based observatories to measure its kilonova and afterglow across the electromagnetic spectrum, which started a new era in astronomy, the so-called multi-messenger astronomy. Therefore, localizations of short gamma-ray bursts, as counterparts of verified gravitational waves, are of crucial importance since this will allow observatories to measure the kilonovae and afterglows associated with these explosions. Our results show that an automated network of observatories, such as the Stellar Observations Network Group, can be coupled with an interconnected multi-hop array of CubeSats for transients (IMPACT) to localize SGRBs. IMPACT is a mega-constellation of <inline-formula id="inf1"><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>∼</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula>80 CubeSats, each of which is equipped with gamma-ray detectors with ultrahigh temporal resolution to conduct full sky surveys in an energy range of 50–300 keV and downlink the required data promptly for high-accuracy localization of the detected SGRB to a ground station. Additionally, we analyze propagation and transmission delays from receipt of an SGRB signal to ground station offload to consider the effects of constellation design, link, and network parameters such as satellites per plane, data rate, and coding gain from erasure correcting codes among others. IMPACT will provide near–real-time localization of SGRBs with a total delay of <inline-formula id="inf2"><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>∼</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula>5 s and will enable Stellar Observations Network Group telescopes to join the efforts to pursue multi-messenger astronomy and help decipher the underlying physics of these events.</p>