• To develop miniaturized scientific instrumentation and technologies for breakthrough science.

HERMES-SP will refine and develop miniaturized X-ray detectors to catch signals from GRBs and other X- ray transients related to GWEs monitoring with the challenge to fit in a nano-satellite, still preserving the level of sensitivity required for science.

  • To prepare for relevant scientific data production.

HERMES-SP will be ready to provide scientifically useful data thanks to its capability to localise GRBs and other X-ray transients better or comparable with that of the Fermi GBM. GRBs and other transients’ variability down to ~1msec and in a very broad energy band, from a few keV to a few hundred keV will be available to scientists for investigation. To that, the localisation capabilities are fundamental, here obtained through the detector’s spatial distribution on different satellites and precisely localised by means of the GNSS signal accuracy enhancement via software; the position of the transient in the sky is determined thanks to the vehicle position triangularisation and it is realigned in time and added together to increase the statistics. 

  • To demonstrate the COTS applicability to challenging space missions. 

To gain its very final goal of a complete sky monitoring, unfeasible with a single detector on a monolithic big satellite, but attainable with multiple detectors spatially distributed -, HERMES-SP shall refer to miniaturised platforms to contain the costs and the time-to-orbit: CubeSats represent a cluster of disruptive technologies, risky at the time being because of COTS inadequacy to space environment. HERMES-SP will assess and apply a production life cycle aimed at increasing the COTS reliability still limiting the time to space and cost, strongly working during the design and PFM implementation on the definition of the mandatory and nice to have MAIV/MAIT to maximise the inflight revenue. This will open the door to further complex missions’ miniaturisation, thanks to COTS more robust to the harsh space applications, having identified procedures for their qualification path, together with their limitations in relation with their field of application. 

  • To contribute to the Space 4.0 goals and expectations. 

HERMES-SP will contribute identifying and standardizing new and innovative approaches to manufacture, assemble and test miniaturized components allowing to change the market mechanism in space sector, allowing more brilliant and proactive SMEs to access the business. The industrial advancement focuses on market of nano-satellites. HERMES-SP aims at advancing the capabilities of such systems to enable them to support and fulfil demanding requirements for high performance Space missions. 

  • To enlarge and strengthen the space distributed architectures and mega-constellations applicability and reliability.

To gain the required precision in localisation and timeliness for an unpredictable physical event, in space and place, HERMES inherently requires a sensors distribution all over the region of the events potential occurrence. HERMES-SP, as building block of the whole, will investigate and optimize the space-ground segments nets design in terms of number of satellites vs number of ground station, number of satellites vs the need of spare satellites, heterogeneous vs homogeneous orbits geometry, constellations architecture and coordination and space segments functionalities (e.g. science, relay, etc), on board sub-systems performance, lifetime vs to replacement, driven by science return, space segment reliability, costs, time to launch, time to operation, scalability. The study will therefore contribute deepening the knowledge on potentials and limitations for large scale -small platform distributed architectures applicability to tough space science missions