BurstCube: A CubeSat for gravitational wave counterparts

BurstCube aims to expand sky coverage in order to detect, localize, and rapidly disseminate information about gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). BurstCube is a\u276U\u27 CubeSat with an instrument comprised of 4 Cesium Iodide (CsI) scintillators coupled to arrays of Silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) and will be sensitive to gamma-rays between 50 keV and 1 MeV. BurstCube will assist current observatories, such as Swift and Fermi, in the detection of GRBs as well as provide astronomical context to gravitational wave (GW) events detected by LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. BurstCube is currently in its development phase with a launch readiness date in early 2022