Spinning Wheel of Solar Energetic Protons

The CRaTER (Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation) instrument is a radiation instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that will orbit the Moon. The instrument will measure the amount of energy deposited into a plastic that simulates living tissue. This will be used to calculate the radiation dose that an astronaut might get when exposed on the surface of the moon. To test the instrument using, the proton beam at Proton Radiation Therapy Facility of Massachusetts General Hospital was passed through a spinning wheel. The wheel was constructed to modify the energy of the beam and produce a spectrum very much like what might be seen during a solar flare event.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• LRO
• Lunar
• CRaTER
• radiation
• physics
• particle physics
• NASA

[LordDoom10]

You wouldn't happen to know about a simple device that is powered by the deflection of light? I used to have this toy that spun around when exposed to light because of the light bouncing off of the white parts of it. Sorta like a fan except the wind is replaced with light.

[ProtonEthan]

Hi Nick- Thanks for posting this - For anyone interested the reference for the paper that describes this wheel is: "A Solar Flare Simulation Wheel for the

Radiation Test Beamline at the Francis

H. Burr Proton Therapy Center

E. W. Cascio, and S. Sarkar, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 55, NO. 6, pp 3428 - 3434, Dec 2008