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E nergy of N eutrons in O ur L ower A tmosphere

E nergy of N eutrons in O ur L ower A tmosphere. Team: Half-Life. Team Members. Paul Mayeur pam006@latech.edu 318-257-4675 Matt Vankerkhove mpv007@latech.edu 337-280-9357 Richard Chevious rtc009@latech.edu 318-257-4369

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E nergy of N eutrons in O ur L ower A tmosphere

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  1. Energy of Neutrons in Our Lower Atmosphere Team: Half-Life

  2. Team Members • Paul Mayeur pam006@latech.edu 318-257-4675 • Matt Vankerkhove mpv007@latech.edu 337-280-9357 • Richard Chevious rtc009@latech.edu 318-257-4369 • Nak Choi nhc004@latech.edu 318-572-4909 • Rachael Deich rad012@latech.edu 318-257-2411

  3. Project Proposal Our group would like to use novel detectors, called “MicroGeiger Sensors”, developed by Dr. Chester Williams, at the Institute of Micro Manufacturing (IfM) at Louisiana Tech University. We will purchase two photodiodes and then these devices will be coated with scintillation material. One doped with gadolinium material the other undoped. We hope to use the detector developed by Dr. Chester Williams to determine how many beta particles and neutron are in the troposphere.

  4. Cosmic Ray Shower

  5. What is a Cosmic Ray Shower? The process of a cosmic ray particle colliding with particles in our atmosphere and disintegrating into smaller pions, muons, and the like, is called a cosmic ray shower. When these primary cosmic rays hit Earth's atmosphere at around 30,000m above the surface, the impacts cause nuclear reactions which produce pions. These pions decay into a muon and muon neutrino (also called antineutrino) at about 9000 m altitude, which rain down upon the surface of the earth, traveling at about 0.998c. Many muons decay on the way down into neutrinos and an electron while others reach the surface, but there are still enough to be detected fairly easily. Actually, about 200 rain down on each square meter of Earth every second. Primary cosmic rays are made up of mostly protons.

  6. What Are We Measuring and How? Beta particles, which are simply electrons produced during the showing process, can be detected by scintillation counters. Beta particles interact with the scintillator through ionization. The excitation of the atoms of a certain media by ionizing particles results in luminescence (scintillation), which can be recorded by a photo detector that we install on our circuit board. Neutrons, being electrically neutral, cannot ionize a scintillator. In order to detect a neutron, it must captured by a nucleus, and the products of the nuclear of the resulting (unstable) isotope detected. The element gadolinium (which has a high capture cross-section for thermal neutrons) absorbs the neutrons, producing prompt gamma emission and later decaying via beta decay. These beta particles are detected by the gadolinium doped scintillator counter. We now have a scintillator with a count of just beta particles and one with a count of beta particles and neutrons turned into beta particles. The rate for neutrons will then be (Rate neutrons = Rate gadolinium doped scintillator – Rate plain scintillator)

  7. Photodiode

  8. Box Design

  9. Electrical Design

  10. Schedule • Board design construction: 04 January 2005 completed • Board construction: 10 January 2005 completed • Box construction: • Inner box 14 January 2005 completed • Outer box 13 January 2005 completed • Project management meeting: 27 January 2005 completed • Testing: • Batteries 24 February 2005 completed • Board 14 January 2005 completed • Sensors 06 April 2005 • Boxes 30 March 2005 • 5m Impact 03 April 2005 • Insulation 28 March 2005 • Meeting with IfM representatives: 01 March 2005 completed • Sensors obtained: 26 April 2005 • Preliminary design report (PDR): 24 March 2005 • PDR defense (video conference): 30 March 2005 • Software Testing/Debugging: 10 April 2005 • Interfacing Sensors with micro controller: 10 April 2005 • CDR: TBD • FRR: TBD

  11. Price Budget

  12. Weight Budget Item Weight in grams BalloonSat 67 g Heating element 22 g Batteries (two) 74 g Inner box 64 g Outer box 113 g Total Items Weight 340 g

  13. Risk Management

  14. Work Breakdown Schedule

  15. References Reference 1: http://www.centrovision.com/tech2.htm Reference 2: “Commercializing Neutrons” by Dr. Chester Wilson Reference 3: http://www.udt.com/Datasheets/Other/PhotodiodeCharacteristics.pdf Reference 4: http://www.advancedphotonix.com/pdf/High_Speed_Si_Pin.pdf Reference 5: http://en.wikipedia.org Reference 6: http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.html Reference 7: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/COSMIC_RAYS/cosmic.html Reference 8: http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/421/ziegler.html Reference 9: http://spacegrant.montana.edu/borealis/missions/BOR0109A/index.php

  16. Questions?

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