Update on the DLR M-42 instrument family and future missions

Kurzfassung

The space radiation environment is the most complex natural radiation environment one can encounter. It not only poses a threat to spacecraft and their electronics, but can also harm hu-mans who venture into deep space. A flight to the Moon or to Mars would first have to pass the Earth’s radiation belts (Van Allen Belts) with the inner (proton and electron) and the outer (elec-tron) belt and then in free space the relevant spacecraft (and possible humans inside) is exposed to the galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) environment. Measuring the radiation load in space pro-vides valuable data to protect astronauts. The data can further be applied to benchmark radia-tion transport codes and used to design new shielding materials. Within the last decade the Biophysics working group of the Radiation Biology Department has developed, built, tested and flown a set of active radiation detector systems in various missions. These consist of the M-42 detector family (M-42 compact, M-42 split, M-42 display, M-42 EXT, M-42 BIG, M-42 PSD) - successfully applied on several airplane flights, NASA balloon flights over Antarctica, MAPHEUS (sounding rocket) flights, within the RadMap experiment on-board the International Space Station (ISS), the NASA Artemis I and II mission and the Astrobotic Peregrine I flight. To better characterize the complex space radiation environment, the M-42 detector family un-dergoes continuous development and refinement. This iterative effort has led to three new de-tector configurations: • M-42 BIG: Features a significantly increased dynamic energy range while providing higher count rate capabilities. • M-42 Pocket: Integrates the flight-proven analog signal-processing architecture of the M-42 EXT (deployed on Artemis II) alongside an integrated display within a compact, porta-ble form factor. • M-42 CUBE: Employs Position Sensitive Diodes (PSDs) arranged in a telescope configura-tion, enabling precise determinations of incident angle and Linear Energy Transfer (LET). This talk provides an overview of the M-42 detector family and presents an in-depth look at its newest configurations.