Space Radiation and Plasma Monitoring Workshop 2014

A Multipurpose Mini Space Particle Telescope (MINI-SPT) with high accuracy energy , time of flight and tracking measurement capabilities

14 May 2014, 12:35

25m

Newton (European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC))

Presentation Radiation Monitors Developments 2

Speaker

Dr Behcet Alpat (INFN Sezione di Perugia)

Description

The goal is to design, manufacture and fully qualify an innovative, rad-hard, fast, compact, low power, weight and cost,reliable mini Space Particle Telescope, with advanced particle tracking capabilities as well as energy measurement, and compatible with small platform requirements, in particular with the 3U CubeSat standard specification. The Mini-SPT will provide direct and precise measurement of the space charged particles energy by means of a crystal calorimeter, time-of flight determination with up/down separation using scintillator technologies, and seven dE/dX sampling and particle directional tracking through a telescope arrangement of advanced silicon pixel detectors. The information provided by Mini- SPT will be of importance to validate the current radiation environment models, particularly for harsh space weather locations as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), better understand the effects of highly dynamic events such as the Solar Particle Events (SPEs) and improve our knowledge of the Van Allen’s belts dynamic and their correlation with the solar activity. In addition, the Mini-SPT compact silicon-pixel detector will provide real-time warning on space weather conditions to mission control centers, allowing the activation of mitigation techniques for payloads and critical subsystems on hosting platforms. The project will provide a benchmark to evaluate the use, for first time in space, of Silicon Photo Multipliers (SIPMs) which are rapidly replacing the classical vacuum photomultipliers due to their low cost, weight, power and their insensitivity to magnetic fields.The SIPMs technology will be utilized for two major measurement techniques of Mini-SPT, calorimetry and time-of-flight, two essential physical quantities for most of the astroparticle physics experiments. Moreover, the real-time protection thru information arriving from Si-pixel detectors of two SEL-free SRAMs will provide valuable information on the validity of in-situ protection techniques.