NanoAvionics has secured a contract to build a nanosatellite for the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s project to measure cosmic diffuse gamma-rays in low-Earth orbit.
The company said Wednesday it will host LANL’s Mini Astrophysical MeV Background Observatory payload on a 12U LEO satellite bus and provide the Department of Energy-funded laboratory with mission control software and integration, launch and operations support.
MAMBO spacecraft will be equipped with bismuth germanate scintillator detectors and silicon photo-multiplier light sensors to measure CDG background in the mega electron-volt energy band for the study of nuclear and accretion processes in the universe.
According to NanoAvionics, the satellite mission will be the first to carry an LANL-developed high-energy astrophysics instrument in two decades.