The Hungarian Institute for Energy Research (EK) is providing a small radiation measurement system to measure radiation levels in the higher layers of the atmosphere. The cosmic radiation field is not well known up to the altitude of the lower orbiting spacecrafts. Since the frequency of manned space flights is increasing faster nowadays than before the importance of cosmic radiation and dosimetric measurements with advanced instruments and techniques is increasing. The Hungarian team have performed several cosmic radiation measurements up to the typical altitudes of the stratospheric balloons, however the radiation field should be studied at higher altitudes too for a detailed understanding of the cosmic radiation.

Previous and ongoing cosmic radiation experiments of the EK

There are several ways to measure the cosmic radiation, however not easy to apply them to a sounding rocket. The easiest way is to use Geiger-Müller (GM) counters to quantify the radiation level and estimate its dose rate. The experiment is performing measurements with active radiation Instruments (GM counters) in order to quantify the cosmic radiation field from the Earth’s surface up to the maximum altitude of the Stratos II rocket. From the GM measurements the direction dependence of the cosmic radiation up to the maximum altitude of the Stratos II rocket will be estimated, from the altitude dependence of the count rates the dose rates will be calculated based on the GM calibrations.

The payload module

The payload includes two separate PCBs. The special and tiny ZP1200 GM tubes (mass: 8 g) are fixed in an aluminium bracket and they are mounted orthonormally onto the high voltage generator PCB. The counts are logged and handled by the MCU unit, which is situated under the GM card. The technological aim of the experiment is to adopt the ultrasmall GM tubes for being used in rocket experiments.

Author: Tamás Hurtony and Balász Zábori
Contact details: hurtony@ett.bme.hu