Advanced cosmic-ray composition experiment for the space station (ACCESS)
- Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis (United States)
- Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics, NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center (United States)
- Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago (United States)
ACCESS is a large electronic cosmic-ray detector, designed for one of the zenith-pointing external attach points on the International Space Station. ACCESS addresses the fundamental astrophysical question: How do cosmic rays gain their enormous energies? It does this by combining two kinds of measurements. By determining the energy spectra of individual elements with atomic number (Z) in the interval 1{<=}Z{<=}28 up to an energy of 10{sup 15} eV, ACCESS will probe a region of the spectra where theories of supernova acceleration predict changes in the cosmic-ray element composition. By measuring individual element abundances at more moderate energies of every element in the entire periodic table, ACCESS will distinguish between competing theories of how the cosmic-ray nuclei are initially injected into the accelerator that gives them their high energies. ACCESS will identify the atomic number of incident cosmic-ray nuclei using silicon solid-state detectors Cherenkov detectors, and scintillators. It will measure the energy of heavy nuclei (Z{>=}4) with transition radiation detectors, and the energy of light nuclei (Z{<=}8) with an ionization calorimeter.
- OSTI ID:
- 21202491
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 458, Issue 1; Conference: Space technology and applications international forum - 1999, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 31 Jan - 4 Feb 1999; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.57508; (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ACCELERATION
CHERENKOV COUNTERS
COSMIC NUCLEI
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
COSMIC RAY PROPAGATION
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
ENERGY SPECTRA
HEAVY NUCLEI
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
LIGHT NUCLEI
MULTIPARTICLE SPECTROMETERS
PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION
PEV RANGE
PHOSPHORS
SHOWER COUNTERS
SI SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
SUPERNOVAE
TRANSITION RADIATION DETECTORS