Open AccessMeasurements of galactic cosmic ray shielding with the CRaTER instrument
Author(s) -
Zeitlin C.,
Case A. W.,
Spence H. E.,
Schwadron N. A.,
Golightly M.,
Wilson J. K.,
Kasper J. C.,
Blake J. B.,
Looper M. D.,
Mazur J. E.,
Townsend L. W.,
Iwata Y.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1002/swe.20043
Subject(s) - cosmic ray , impact crater , zenith , physics , orbiter , electromagnetic shielding , telescope , meteoroid , astronomy , astrobiology , spacecraft , lunar craters , cosmic cancer database , optics , quantum mechanics
The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been measuring energetic charged particles from the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar particle events in lunar orbit since 2009. CRaTER includes three pairs of silicon detectors, separated by pieces of tissue‐equivalent plastic that shield two of the three pairs from particles incident at the zenith‐facing end of the telescope. Heavy‐ion beams studied in previous ground‐based work have been shown to be reasonable proxies for the GCRs when their energies are sufficiently high. That work, which included GCR simulations, led to predictions for the amount of dose reduction that would be observed by CRaTER. Those predictions are compared to flight data obtained by CRaTER in 2010–2011.