DarkNESS: A skipper-CCD nanosatellite for dark matter searches

Alpine, Phoenix; Bhatia, Samriddhi; Botti, Ana M.; Cervantes-Vergara, Brenda A.; Chavez, Claudio R.; Chierchie, Fernando; Drlica-Wagner, Alex; Essig, Rouven; Estrada, Juan; Etzion, Erez; Harnik, Roni; Kim, Terry; Lembeck, Michael; Lim, Qi; Perez, Santiago E.; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Saffold, Nathan; Tiffenberg, Javier; Uemura, Sho; Xu, Hailin

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2025.07.070

DarkNESS: A skipper-CCD nanosatellite for dark matter searches

Journal Article · Wed Jul 30 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Advances in Space Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2025.07.070· OSTI ID:3006641

Alpine, Phoenix ^[1]; Bhatia, Samriddhi ^[1]; Botti, Ana M. ^[2]; Cervantes-Vergara, Brenda A. ^[2]; Chavez, Claudio R. ^[2]; Chierchie, Fernando ^[3]; Drlica-Wagner, Alex ^[4]; Essig, Rouven ^[5]; Estrada, Juan ^[4]; Etzion, Erez ^[6]; Harnik, Roni ^[2]; Kim, Terry ^[7]; Lembeck, Michael ^[1]; Lim, Qi ^[1]; Perez, Santiago E. ^[8]; Rauscher, Bernard J. ^[9]; Saffold, Nathan ^[4]; Tiffenberg, Javier ^[2]; Uemura, Sho ^[2]; Xu, Hailin ^[5]

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Instituto de Inv.en Ing.Eléctrica “Alfredo C. Desages” (IIIE) CONICET, Bahía Blanca (Argentina)
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); University of Chicago, IL (United States)
Stony Brook University, NY (United States)
Tel Aviv University (Israel)
University of Chicago, IL (United States)
Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina); CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA) (Argentina)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)

The Dark matter Nanosatellite Equipped with Skipper Sensors (DarkNESS) deploys a recently developed skipper-CCD architecture with sub-electron readout noise in low Earth orbit (LEO) to investigate potential signatures of dark matter (DM). The mission addresses two interaction channels: electron recoils from strongly interacting sub-GeV DM and X-rays produced through decaying DM. Orbital observations avoid attenuation that limits ground-based measurements, extending sensitivity reach for both channels. The mission proceeds toward launch following laboratory validation of the instrument. A launch opportunity has been secured through Firefly Aerospace’s DREAM 2.0 program, awarded to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). As a result, this will constitute the first use of skipper-CCDs in space and evaluate their suitability for low-noise X-ray and single-photon detection in future space observatories.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Stony Brook University, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Binational Science Foundation; Heising-Simons Foundation; Simons Investigator; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11359; SC0009854; SC0025309

OSTI ID:: 3006641

Journal Information:: Advances in Space Research, Journal Name: Advances in Space Research Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 76; ISSN 0273-1177

Publisher:: Elsevier BVCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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