SCIENCE HARDWARE USED:

• Electronics unit BTN-ME
• Spare BTN
• BTN unit

SUPPORT ITEMS:

• Platform with locks
• Cable set
• Cable holder
• Cable reel with cable.

PURPOSE:

• Building a physical model for generation of charged and neutral particles during solar flares.
• Developing a physical model of neutron albedo of the earth atmosphere with regard to helio- and geophysical environment, measurement point longitude and altitude effects, time of the day and lighting conditions, atmosphere conditions.
• Developing a physical model of neutron background in the vicinity of the ISS in different flight conditions, as well as recording space gamma bursts.

OBJECTIVE:

• Mounting the onboard neutron telescope, cable routing inside and outside the pressurized compartment and conducting photo (video) imagery of their location during EVA
• Measuring direct and scattered fluxes of high-energy neutrons of solar flares with energies from 10 to 15 MeV.
• Measuring neutrons resulted from nuclear reactions induced by space rays in the earth’s upper atmosphere in the range of thermal (0.001 – 0.1 eV), epithermal (0.1 – 1.0 eV), resonance (1 – 0.3 eV) and fast (0.3 – 15 MeV) energies.
• Measuring gamma radiation in energy ranges between 30 keV to 100 MeV.

EXPECTED RESULTS:

Experimental spectrometric investigations of neutron fields on the ISS will allow to

• Clarify the on-orbit radiation environment models
• Clarify neutron source models in near-earth space environment and evaluate their contribution in a complete radiation dose received by cosmonauts during EVA
• Obtain data on high-energy neutron fluxes with energies up to 16 MeV coming from powerful solar flares with regard to albedo radiation of the earth
• Build an operational model of neutron background environment on the station
• Clarify existing solar activity models
• Obtain data on fluxes of rigid electromagnetic space rays component

EXPERIMENT RESULTS:

• Measurement data on spatial and time distributions of radiation characteristics of space ionizing radiation (neutron and gamma components) outside the Service Module of the ISS RS;
• Correlation data on radiation environment parameters outside the Service Module of the ISS RS obtained through calculation with the results of measurements made by science hardware BTN-M1 and results of other Russian and international experiments;
• Measurement data on solar flare parameters in neutron and gamma range.