Estimating the background of the BlackCAT CubeSat and its impact on science observations

Joseph M. Colosimo; Abraham D. Falcone; Tyler B. Anderson; Cole R. Armstrong; Logan D. Baker; David N. Burrows; Zachary Catlin; Seth K. Culbertson; Derek B. Fox; Hannah M. Grzybowski; Evan C. Jennerjahn; Daniel M. LaRocca; Gooderham McCormick; David M. Palmer; Lukas R. Stone; Mitchell Wages; Daniel Washington

doi:10.1117/12.2617438

31 August 2022 Estimating the background of the BlackCAT CubeSat and its impact on science observations

Joseph M. Colosimo, Abraham D. Falcone, Tyler B. Anderson, Cole R. Armstrong, Logan D. Baker, David N. Burrows, Zachary Catlin, Seth K. Culbertson, Derek B. Fox, Hannah M. Grzybowski, Evan C. Jennerjahn, Daniel M. LaRocca, Gooderham McCormick, David M. Palmer, Lukas R. Stone, Mitchell Wages, Daniel Washington

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 1218159 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2617438
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Conference Poster

Abstract

The BlackCAT CubeSat will monitor the soft x-ray sky, searching for high-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), gravitational-wave counterparts, and other high-energy transient events. BlackCAT will utilize a coded-aperture mask to localize sources to sub-arcminute precision. We investigate the primary forms of background that will affect this mission and present different methods to suppress these sources in order to increase the sensitivity of this mission. In the absence of mitigation, the optical and ultraviolet backgrounds could increase noise in the hybrid CMOS detectors (HCDs) used in this mission and potentially trigger spurious events. We plan to use a polyimide filter to suppress extreme ultraviolet emission produced by the geocorona. The HCDs and polyimide filter will be coated with a thin aluminum layer to block optical light. We estimate the magnitude of the observed cosmic and galactic X-ray backgrounds. Additionally, we investigate the impact of trapped particles on the sensitivity and duty cycle of the mission. We discuss the effect of these various sources of background on the sensitivity of BlackCAT to GRBs and other transient events.

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Joseph M. Colosimo, Abraham D. Falcone, Tyler B. Anderson, Cole R. Armstrong, Logan D. Baker, David N. Burrows, Zachary Catlin, Seth K. Culbertson, Derek B. Fox, Hannah M. Grzybowski, Evan C. Jennerjahn, Daniel M. LaRocca, Gooderham McCormick, David M. Palmer, Lukas R. Stone, Mitchell Wages, and Daniel Washington "Estimating the background of the BlackCAT CubeSat and its impact on science observations", Proc. SPIE 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 1218159 (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2617438

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