Integration and qualification of the Mini-EUSO telescope on board the ISS

TL;DR

Mini-EUSO is a space-based telescope on the ISS designed to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, transient luminous events, meteoroids, and space debris, demonstrating advanced UV detection technology in orbit.

Contribution

This paper presents the integration and qualification process of Mini-EUSO, a novel space-based UV telescope for cosmic ray and atmospheric phenomena observation.

Findings

Successful space qualification of Mini-EUSO hardware

Demonstration of UV detection capabilities from space

First assessment of space-based cosmic ray observation potential

Abstract

Mini-EUSO is a compact telescope ($37 \times 37 \times 62$~cm$^3$) currently hosted on board the International Space Station. Mini-EUSO is devoted primarily to study Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) above $10^{21}$~eV but also to search for trange Quark Matter (SQM), to observe Transient Luminous Event (TLE) in upper atmosphere, meteoroids, sea bioluminescence and space debris tracking. Mini-EUSO consist of a main optical system, the Photo Detector Module (PDM), sensitive to UV spectrum ($300\div400$~nm) and several ancillary sensors comprising a visible ($400\div780$~nm) and NIR ($1500\div1600$~nm) cameras and a $8 \times 8$ channels Multi-Pixel Photon Counter Silicon PhotoMultiplier (MPPC SiPM) array which will increase the Tecnological Readyness Level of this ultrafast imaging sensor. Mini-EUSO belongs to a novel set of missions committed to evaluate, for the first time, the capability of observing Cosmic Rays from a space-based. The instrumentation, space-qualified tests will be shown.