Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are intense brief flashes of energy associated with the deaths of massive stars or the merging of two very dense objects such as neutron stars. COMCUBE-S is a swarm of CubeSat satellites which will help us to understand the construction of the Universe and its expansion by studying the polarisation of these GRBs and quickly alerting other observatories so that these energetic events can be simultaneously studied in other ways during their brief existence.
ESA is helping to fund a mission concept study for this idea, proposed by the University College Dublin Centre for Space Research, together with IJCLab and Clyde Space. COMCUBE-S is one of the seven selected ideas of ESA Preparation's open call for innovative new mission concepts enabled by CubeSat swarms. Read more about the selected ideas here.