ALTEA-Shield: a USLab-ISS radiation survey
Zaconte, Veronica ; Di Fino, Luca ; Larosa, Marianna ; et al. ; - ASI Sponsor
Dec - 2012

Event Title : 39th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 14-22 July 2012, in Mysore, India
Published in: 39th COSPAR scientific assembly abstracts
Publisher: COSPAR
type: Conference Proceedings

Abstract
In general, radiation exposure represents one of the greatest risks to humans traveling on exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The ALTEA detector (ALTEA-Shield experiment) is used to measure the radiation environment in different places of the ISS-USLab. ALTEA-Shield is part of the ALTEA program, a multidisciplinary research project which aims at obtaining a better understanding of the radiation environment on board the International Space Station, and also at studying the interaction between cosmic rays and the astronauts visual system. The ALTEA-Shield/Survey experiment, financed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and sponsored by ESA, uses the six particle detectors (SDUs, Silicon Detector Units) of ALTEA arranged on a 3D isotropic support. It is capable to measure cosmic ray particles coming from three different directions, being able to give an overview on the particle fluxes (in a detectable energy range between 3 and 900 keV/um) in different locations of the USLab. The ALTEA-Shield/Survey experiment started on September 2010 and it was placed in four locations of the USLab, resulting in a total observation time of more than 290 days. We present here the particle fluxes in the four positions, together with previous measurements acquired under the ALTEA-DOSI experimental sessions in 2006-2009; ALTEA is able to discriminate ion species (charge Z) from Z>4 and to measure the trajectory of each particle, so to be able to reconstruct the radiation flux in the three direction XYZ. The differences in the flux measured along these directions (along the ISS main body and two transverse directions) are mostly due to the different amount and quality of shielding materials passed by the incoming nuclei.

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