F. Cafagna

The Data Processor System of EUSO-SPB

We will present the Data Processor (DP) and the flight software of EUSO-SPB. The EUSO-SPB experiment is a pathfinder mission of the EUSO program having as main objective to detect Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) by measuring, for the first time from the space, the fluorescence and the Cerenkov light produced by the interaction of the particle with the nuclei of the Earths atmosphere. The instrument is a telescope of smaller dimension in respect to the one designed for the ISS, mounted on an unpressurised gondola of a super pressure pumpkin balloon. EUSO-SPB was launched from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility of Wanaka Airport (New Zealand) on the 24th of April 2017, 22:50 and lasted for 12 days 4.5 hours aloft.

EUSO-Balloon: Observation and Measurement of Tracks from a Laser in a Helicopter

EUSO-Balloon is a prototype detector of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EUSO). EUSO-Balloon was flown successfully as a balloon payload from the Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Launch Facility in Ontario, Canada on 2014 August 24-25 at an altitude of 38 km. To simulate the optical signatures of UV fluorescence photons emitted from cosmic ray air showers generated in the atmosphere, a pulsed UV laser and two UV flashers (LED and Xe) were used. These sources were fired in the instrument field of view for about 2 hours from a helicopter that circled at an altitude of 3 km under the balloon. UV signals were effectively detected, including 270 laser track events. We describe the helicopter laser system and the geometric reconstruction of the laser events that were generated by this system. We report here on the reconstruction of the laser events starting from the information contained in the observed tracks. We note that this work represents the first observation and measurement of aircraft based laser tracks by an optical fluorescence detector flown at near space altitudes.

Performance of the EUSO-Balloon electronics

The 24th of August 2014, the EUSO-BALLOON instrument went for a night flight for several hours, 40 km above Timmins (Canada) balloon launching site, concretizing the hard work of an important part of the JEM-EUSO collaboration started 3 years before. This instrument consists of a telescope made of two lenses and a complex electronic chain divided in two mains sub-systems: the PDM (photo detector module) and the DP (data processing). Each of them is made of several innovative elements developed and tested in a short time. This paper presents their performances before, during and after the flight.

The onboard software of the EUSO-SPB pathfinder experiment

In this paper, the flight software architecture of the EUSO‐SPB mission is described. The JEM‐EUSO program aims at developing an advanced large space‐borne UV telescope designed to detect ultra high energy cosmic rays. In this framework, the EUSO‐SPB experiment is the third pathfinder mission of the JEM‐EUSO program, the second that has been launched on a stratospheric balloon to test the technological readiness of the detectors and to carry out some preliminary scientific observations. The EUSO‐SPB software has a modular structure conceived to control all the instruments and the ancillary subsystems, to acquire data, and to manage data transfer to ground. System programming in C and C++ languages and Bash scripts have been used to implement and run the modules. The software runs on the data processor, an onboard computer that communicates with several payload blocks, the UV sensor, and the synchronization and time tagging board. The control software module controls all the subsystems, provides communication to ground through the NASA telemetry or the Internet, runs the acquisition control and download software, and manages the execution of the acquisition software. The acquisition software module directly operates the subsystems for the data acquisition activity. The acquisition control and download software module runs the acquisition software upon request of the control software and transfers scientific data to ground. The software system performed as expected during the flight on April 2017.