CubeSats have become an excellent way to conduct scientific research on Earth and elsewhere due to their reduced costs and sizes, as some CubeSats are the size of shoeboxes while producing the same quality of science from traditional satellites. This was recently demonstrated with BurstCube, which successfully detected GRB 240629A on June 29. This achievement holds the potential to help scientists better understand gamma-ray bursts, which are known for being the universe’s most powerful explosions, for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
“We’re excited to collect science data,” said Dr. Sean Semper, who is the lead engineer on BurstCube at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It’s an important milestone for the team and for the many early career engineers and scientists that have been part of the mission.”
Despite one of its two solar panels failing to fully extend after BurstCube was deployed, which blocked the spacecraft’s star tracker that help orient the spacecraft, BurstCube successfully detected the gamma-ray burst, which marks the first time a CubeSat has achieved such a scientific milestone. But despite this incredible achievement, the increased drag produced from the one, unfurled solar panel will cause BurstCube to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere far sooner than the 12-18 months of science the team was hoping to achieve.
“I’m proud of how the team responded to the situation and is making the best use of the time we have in orbit,” said Dr. Jeremy Perkins, who is the principal investigator on BurstCube at Goddard. “Small missions like BurstCube not only provide an opportunity to do great science and test new technologies, like our mission’s gamma-ray detector, but also important learning opportunities for the up-and-coming members of the astrophysics community.”
This scientific achievement by BurstCube demonstrates the incredible feats that CubeSats can accomplish for a fraction of the cost of traditional satellites, and BurstCube could be the first of many CubeSat deployments designed to study gamma-ray bursts like never before.
What new discoveries will CubeSats make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: EurekAlert!, NASA
Feeatured Image: BurstCube being deployed from the ISS on April 18, 2024. (Credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick)