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The Institute of Technical and Experimental Physics tested and calibrated the gamma spectrometer of the BepiColombo probe

Publication date: 
2020/04/23
On March 10, the ESA / JAXA BepiColombo flew near the Earth to use the Earth's gravitational field to accelerate its journey toward Mercury, its destination. BepiColombo consists of three modules: the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) designed by ESA and the JAXA Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). One of several experimental MPO modules is the Mercury Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (MGNS).

The main task of MGNS is to determine the elemental composition of interesting areas of Mercury's surface. The most important part of MGNS is the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer based on LaBr3 crystal. This spectrometer was tested and calibrated by the staff of the Institute of Technical and Experimental Physics of the Czech Technical University in Prague within the project ESA ESTEC 4000103891/11 / NL / CBi. A Portable Calibration Gamma-Ray Station (PCGRS) was developed for this project. The PCGRS device is designed for calibration of gamma radiation detectors in a wide energy range. Calibration in a wide energy range is very important, the characteristic radiation of the elements is distributed in the order of keV to MeV.

 

Details on the ESA / JAXA BepiColombo probe are available here.