HERMES Pathfinder & SpIRIT: a progress report

• Authors: FIORE F.; TRENTI M.; EVANGELISTA Y.; CAMPANA R.; BARONI G.; CERAUDO F.; CITOSSI M.; DELLA CASA G.; DILILLO G.; FEROCI M.; FIORINI M.; GHIRLANDA G.; LABANTI C.; LA ROSA G.; MARCHESINI E.J.; MORGANTE G.; NAVA L.; NOGARA P.; NUTI A.; PERRI M.; RUSSO F.; SOTTILE G.; LAVAGNA M.; COLAGROSSI A.; SILVESTRINI S.; QUIRINO M.; BECHINI M.; BIANCHI L.; BRANDONISIO A.; DE CECIO F.; DOTTORI A.; TROISI I.; BERTUCCIO G.; MELE F.; NEGRI B.; BERTACIN R.; GRAPPASONNI C.; PIAZZOLLA R.; PIRROTTA S.; PUCCETTI S.; RINALDI M.; TIBERIA A.; BURDERI L.; SANNA A.; RIGGIO A.; CABRAS C.; TSVETKOVA A.; SANTANGELO A.; GUZMAN A.; HEDDERMAN P.; PLIEGO CABALLERO S.; TENZER C.; VACCHI A.; ZAMPA N.; CRUPI R.; BELLUTTI P.; DEMENEV E.; FICORELLA F.; NOVEL D.; PEPPONI G.; PICCIOTTO A.; ZORZI N.; GRASSI M.; MALCOVATI P.; DI SALVO T.; LEONE W.; TREVISAN S.; RASHEVSKAYA I.; RACHEVSKI A.; ZAMPA G.; CHEN T.; GAO N.; XIONG S.; YI S.; ZHANG S.; ORTIZ DEL CASTILLO M.; MEARNS R.; MCROBBIE J.; CHAPMAN A.; THOMAS M.; WOODS A.; MORGAN J.; BARRACLOUGH S.; WERNER Norbert; ŘÍPA Jakub; MÜNZ Filip; PAL A.; GAČNIK D.; HUDRAP A.; SELČAN D.; MOLERA CALVES G.
• Year of publication: 2024
• Type: Article in Proceedings
• Conference: 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC)
• MU Faculty or unit: Faculty of Science
• web: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXiv250217952F/abstract
• Keywords: Gamma Ray Bursts; CubeSat; distributed architectures; constellation
• Description: The High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites Pathfinder (HERMES-PF) is an in-orbit demonstration mission consisting of a constellation of six 3U cubesats hosting simple but innovative X-ray/gamma-ray detectors for the monitoring of cosmic high-energy transients. HERMES-PF, funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and by the European Commission (EC) through a Horizon 2020 grant, is expected to be launched at the beginning of 2025. An identical X-ray/gamma-ray detector is hosted by the Australian 6U cubesat Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal nanosatellite (SpIRIT), launched on December 1st 2023. The main objective of HERMES-PF/SpIRIT is to demonstrate that high energy cosmic transients such as Gamma Ray Bursts can be detected efficiently by miniatured hardware and localized using triangulation techniques. The HERMES-PF X-ray/gamma-ray detector is made by 60 GAGG:Ce scintillator crystals and 12 2´5 silicon drift detector (SDD) mosaics, used to detect both the cosmic Xrays directly and the optical photons produced by gamma-ray interactions with the instrument scintillator crystals. This innovative design provides a unique broad band spectral coverage from a few keV to a few MeV. Furthermore, the use of fast GAGG:Ce crystals and of mosaics of small SDD cells allows us to reach an exquisite time resolution better than a microsecond. We will present a progress report on the missions focusing the discussion on the scientific innovation of the project and on the main lessons learned during the project development including: the importance but also the challenges of using distributed architectures to achieve ambitious scientific objectives; the importance of developing critical technologies under science agreements for the realization of innovative, high-performing but lowcost payloads; best use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies in scientific missions. We will finally discuss the prospects of applying these concepts for the creation of an observatory with the ability to cover the entire high-energy sky at all times to search for the high-energy counterparts of gravitational wave events that Advanced LIGO/Virgo/Kagra will find at the end of this decade and the Einstein Telescope during the 2030’.

Related projects

• Integrated Activities for the High Energy Astrophysics Domain