HASPIDE-SPACE: a new concept of a radiation-resistant instrument for solar energetic particles

TL;DR

HASPIDE-SPACE introduces a novel, compact, and radiation-resistant instrument designed to monitor high-energy solar particles and gamma-ray bursts during space missions, addressing current measurement limitations.

Contribution

The paper presents a new instrument concept capable of measuring solar energetic particles up to 600 MeV and gamma-ray bursts, improving detection capabilities for space weather monitoring.

Findings

Proposed instrument can measure particles up to 600 MeV.

Designed for long-duration, low-power space missions.

Enhances detection of intense gamma-ray bursts.

Abstract

Galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles (SEPs) affect the performance of instruments carried on board space missions and are the source of the absorbed dose to astronauts. Particles above 100 MeV are the most penetrating. The overall particle flux impacting spacecraft increases by several orders of magnitude during the most intense SEP events and gamma-ray bursts, compared to the galactic cosmic-ray background. Unfortunately, most detectors dedicated to the monitoring of solar particles in space do not allow measurements above 200 MeV. Space agencies and the space and heliospheric weather communities are interested in improving this scenario. We propose a new, compact, low-power, and radiation-resistant instrument, intended for long-duration missions to monitor solar X-rays, electrons, and protons up to energies of tens of keV, MeV, and 600 MeV, respectively. Intense long and short gamma-ray bursts would be observed in the absence of solar activity.