Title：Detectors and In-orbit Results of GRID: a Student NanoSat Mission for Gamma-Ray Burst Observation

Speaker：Ming Zeng (Tsinghua University)

Time：3:00pm Nov. 16h (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：42915400486 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Report in English

Abstract：

Gamma-Ray Integrated Detectors (GRID) is a student project designed to use multiple gamma-ray detectors carried by nanosatellites (NanoSat), forming a full-time and all-sky gamma-ray detection network to monitor the transient gamma-ray sky in the multi-messenger astronomy era. A compact NanoSat gamma-ray detector has been designed and implemented for GRID, including its hardware and firmware, with considerable contribution from undergraduate students. The detector employs four GAGG:Ce scintillators coupled with four silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays to achieve a high detection efficiency of gamma rays between 10 keV and 2 MeV with low power and small dimensions. The first NanoSat payload GRID-01 was launched on 29 October 2018 as a pathfinder, and the GRID-02 NanoSat was launched on 6 November 2020, carried out stable long-term scientific observations. So far, 8 GRID NanoSat detectors have been launched, and successfully observed the first dozens of GRBs, including the GRB 210121A. The detector design and the in-orbit results, as well as our educational experience during this, are given in this talk. 

CV：

Ming Zeng is a professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University. He received his bachelor's degree in 2003 and his PhD degree in 2008 at Tsinghua University. He has been involved in the LHCb experiment since 2005, working on the Outer Tracker (OT) and later the scintillating fibre tracker (SciFi) to date. He is a member of the working group of the CJPL Phase II, which has been listed in the National Plan of Large Research Infrastructures (2020-2024). In recent years, he conducts research in micro-/nano- satellite carried particle detector payload for high energy astrophysics. He led the launch and operation of the GRID collaboration, which is a student space mission with the purpose of monitoring gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using a constellation of NanoSats in low Earth orbits, with 8 NanoSat payloads successfully launched.