Pre-flight performance and radiation hardness of the Tokyo Tech pico-satellite Cute-1.7

J. Kotoku*, J. Kataoka, Y. Kuramoto, Y. Tsubuku, Y. Yatsu, R. Sato, T. Ikagawa, T. Saito, N. Kawai, K. Konoue, N. Miyashita, M. Iai, K. Omagari, M. Kashiwa, H. Yabe, K. Imai, Miyamoto, K. Fujiwara, S. Masumoto, T. UsudaT. Iljic, A. Konda, S. Sugita, T. Yamanaka, D. Matsuura, T. Sagami, S. Kajiwara, Y. Funaki, S. Matsunaga, T. Shima, S. Kishimoto

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Cute-1.7 was launched successfully in February 2006 as a piggyback satellite of the Astro-F mission. The Cute-1.7 dimensions are 10 × 10 × 20 cm3 box with a total mass of 3.6 kg. It is the second pico-satellite to have been developed completely by students of the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech.) after the successful launch of the CUTE-I in June 2003. The goals of the Cute-1.7 mission are two-fold: (1) to validate high-performance, commercially available products for the first time in space. We particularly use personal digital assistants (PDAs) as a main computer in orbit (2) to demonstrate new potential uses for small satellites in various space studies, as proposed by the "satellite-core" concept. For the Cute-1.7 mission, we will carry avalanche photo diodes (APDs) as a high-count particle monitor in low-Earth orbit. Here we present details of various ground tests and pre-flight performance of the Cute-1.7 immediately before the launch. Results of the Cute-1.7 mission will provide quick feedback for space applications of APDs in Japan's future X-ray astronomy mission NeXT.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)677-685
Number of pages9
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume565
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006 Sept 15
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Avalanche photo-diode
  • Cute-1.7
  • PDA
  • Pico-satellite
  • Satellite core

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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