SPACE FOCUS

摘要

NASA MARSHALL Space Flight Center has contracted Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to develop a small satellite platform for the StarBurst astrophysics mission. Part of the newly formed NASA Pioneers Program, StarBurst aims to detect high-energy gamma rays emitted from events such as the mergers of neutron stars. Managed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, StarBurst will use a 250kg smallsat built by SFL to observe the gamma rays emitted from these merger events, which form most of the heavy metals, such as gold and platinum, in the universe.It is believed StarBurst could observe up to ten neutron star mergers every year.Part of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, SFL will develop the StarBurst mission on its space-proven 1x1x1-metre scalable DAUNTLESS bus.