From the LHC to Space: Using Timepix Detectors for the Space Environment

LUCID, the Langton Ultimate Cosmic Ray Intensity Detector, is a particle detector experiment, conceived by students at the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, using technology developed for use in the LHC. Its goal is to study the radiation environment in Low Earth Orbit, for modelling space weather, estimating the impact of radiation on spacecraft, and the study of galactic cosmic rays. LUCID uses five Timepix chips, silicon pixel detectors which were developed by the Medipix2 Collaboration at CERN, and which have never before been used in open space.

We present how data from LUCID’s Timepix detectors may be used to deduce the properties of incident particles, and how these results from LUCID have been used to study the regional and temporal change in the environment of energetic particles at 635km above the Earth. We discuss how LUCID’s data can be used in studies of particle transport from the sun, and how solar activity impacts on the particle environment so close to Earth.

We are planning to tie in LUCID data with data from the TimPix project, which monitors the radiation environment on the ISS as part of the Principia project working with Tim Peake. Schools are showing interest in analysing LUCID data in a similar way to TimPix data, tackling a manageable set first and then moving on to data sets connected with different periods of time connected with different solar activity.