Mini-EUSO data acquisition and control software

Abstract

We present the data acquisition and control software for the operation of the Mini-Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO), a space-based fluorescence telescope for the observation of extensive air showers and atmospheric phenomena. This framework has been extensively tested alongside the development of Mini-EUSO and was finalized ahead of the successful launch of the instrument to the ISS on August 22, 2019. The data acquisition, housekeeping, and subsystem control are achieved using custom-designed front-end electronics based on a Xilinx Zynq XC7Z030 chip interfaced with a PCIe/104 CPU module via the integrated Zynq processing system. The instrument control interface is handled using an object-oriented C++ design, which can be run both autonomously and interactively as required. Although developed for Mini-EUSO, the modular design of both the software and hardware can easily be scaled up to larger instrument designs and adapted to different subsystem and communication requirements. As such, this framework will also be used in the upgrade of the EUSO-TA instrument and potentially for the next EUSO-SPB2 NASA Balloon flight. The software and firmware presented are open source and released with detailed and integrated documentation.

arXiv commentUpdated to match published version in JATIS. Code available at https://github.com/cescalara/minieuso_cpu

References in corpus (8)

• The Astrophysics of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
• The TUS detector of extreme energy cosmic rays on board the Lomonosov satellite
• Mini-EUSO: A high resolution detector for the study of terrestrial and cosmic UV emission from the International Space Station
• The integration and testing of the Mini-EUSO multi-level trigger system
• First observations of speed of light tracks by a fluorescence detector looking down on the atmosphere
• Characterization of Hamamatsu 64-channel TSV SiPMs
• Secondary cameras onboard the Mini-EUSO experiment: Control Software and Calibration

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Mini-EUSO mission to study Earth UV emissions on board the ISS
• Observation of night-time emissions of the Earth in the near UV range from the International Space Station with the Mini-EUSO detector
• Design and implementation of a real-time onboard system for a stratospheric balloon mission using commercial off-the-self components and a model-based approach