AFIS: A NEW INSTRUMENT FOR COSMIC RADIATION STUDIES ON BEXUS 18 AND FUTURE NANOSATELLITE MISSIONS

摘要

The Antiproton Flux in Space (AFIS) mission will measure the flux of low-energy antiprotons trapped in Earth's magnetic field. We have developed a new active-target detector concept and have constructed and tested two prototypes. The instrument's innovative, simple design relies on the stopping of particles in matter due to ionization. It can detect charged particles and identify ions with low kinetic energies. To identify antiprotons, the characteristics of their annihilation process are exploited as well. It is ideal for applications on nanosatellites. We present the results of a beam test of a prototype detector with a reduced number of channels undertaken at the Paul Scher-rer Institute in 2013. In particular, we discuss the successful tracking of pions and protons and the reconstruction of beam energy characteristics. We also present the construction and testing of a full prototype detector that was selected to fly aboard the BEXUS 18 stratospheric research balloon.