Mr. Wei Liu Profile

Wei Liu

at Univ. of California, Berkeley

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Author

Publications (3)

Proceedings Article | 5 September 2024 Presentation + Paper

CuRIOS-ED: the technology demonstrator for the CubeSats for rapid infrared and optical surveys mission

Hannah Gulick, Jessica Lu, Aryan Sood, Steve V. Beckwith, Joshua Bloom, Kodi Rider, Dan Werthimer, Wei Liu, Guy Nir, Harrison Lee, Jeremy McCauley

Proceedings Volume 13092, 1309205 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020559

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Sensors, Dark current, Analog to digital converters, Telescopes, Interference (communication), CMOS sensors, Signal detection, Satellites, Imaging systems

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The rise of time-domain astronomy including electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves, gravitational microlensing, explosive phenomena, and even astrometry with Gaia, are showing the power and need for surveys with high-cadence, large area, and long time baselines to study the transient universe. A constellation of SmallSats or CubeSats providing wide, instantaneous sky coverage down to 21 Vega mag at optical wavelengths would be ideal for addressing this need. We are assembling CuRIOS-ED (CubeSats for Rapid Infrared and Optical Survey–Exploration Demo), an optical telescope payload which will act as a technology demonstrator for a larger constellation of several hundred 16U CubeSats known as CuRIOS. The full CuRIOS constellation will study the death and afterlife of stars by providing all-sky, all-the-time observations to a depth of 21 Vega magnitudes in the optical bandpass. In preparation for CuRIOS, CuRIOS-ED will launch in late 2025 as part of the 12U Starspec InspireSat MVP payload funded through the Canadian Space Agency. CuRIOS-ED will be used to demonstrate the <1” pointing capabilities of the StarSpec ADCS system and to space-qualify a commercial camera package for use on the full CuRIOS payload. The CuRIOS-ED camera system will utilize a Sony IMX455 CMOS detector delivered in an off-the-shelf Atik apx60 package which has no previous space heritage. We deconstructed and repackaged the apx60 camera to make it compatible with operations in vacuum environments as well as the CubeSat form factor, power, and thermal constraints. By qualifying this commercial camera solution, the cost of each CuRIOS satellite will be greatly decreased (∼ 100×) when compared with current space-qualified cameras with IMX455 detectors. Therefore, the results from this work have great implications on the CuRIOS mission as well as other Cube or SmallSat missions. We discuss the CuRIOS-ED mission design with an emphasis on the disassembly, repackaging, and testing of the Atik apx60 for space-based missions. The testing results include characterization of the Sony IMX455 detector and Atik electronics performance. We find a read noise of 2.43±0.05 e- at a gain of 1 electron/ADU and detector temperatures ranging from -10 C to 25 C. The apx60’s dark current is well below an electron per second at the temperatures and exposure times tested. The apx60 camera also exhibits patterned noise in the form of horizontal striping and an asymmetric signal gradient which increases across the detector’s columns. We will also comment on preliminary environmental testing results.

Proceedings Article | 19 July 2024 Poster

Panoramic SETI: searching for technosignatures and astrophysical transients

Jérôme Maire, Shelley Wright, Aaron Brown, Jamie Holder, Paul Horowitz, Rachel Kepler, Nikolas Korzoun, Tom Lafleur, Wei Liu, Sophie Nathanson, Rick Raffanti, Nicolas Rault-Wang, Bretton Simpson, Remington P. Stone, Dan Werthimer, David Williams

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130963L (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020329

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Panoramic SETI: program update and high-energy astrophysics applications

Jérôme Maire, Shelley A. Wright, Jamie Holder, David Anderson, Wynstan Benbow, Aaron Brown, Maren Cosens, Gregory Foote, William Hanlon, Olivier Hervet, Paul Horowitz, Andrew Howard, Ryan Lee, Wei Liu, Rick Raffanti, Nicolas Rault-Wang, Remington P. Stone, Dan Werthimer, James Wiley, David Williams

Proceedings Volume 12184, 121848B (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630772

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, Telescopes, Observatories, Gamma radiation, Signal detection, Panoramic photography, Sensors, Prototyping, Physics, High energy astrophysics

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