BurstCube

We propose to design, build, and fly BurstCube: a 6U CubeSat with four CsI detectors sensitive to gamma-rays from 10 keV to 1 MeV. BurstCube autonomously detects gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) onboard, rapidly downlinking data for timing and localizations that are disseminated to ground-based observers to maximize the chances of detecting fading broadband afterglows. The BurstCube mission has three objectives: provide astrophysical context and rapid localizations for high-significance LIGO/Virgo detections coincident with short GRBs; correlate short GRBs with LIGO/Virgo sub-threshold signals, effectively increasing the gravitational wave detection volume; monitor the gamma-ray sky in search of transient and variable sources including Solar flares, flaring Galactic binaries magnetar outbursts, and flaring active galaxies. The discovery of GWs and their astrophysical counterparts is one of the most important scientific topics of this decade (Astro2010 Decadal Survey).