The Space Radiation Detector onboard China Space Station

The radiation field in space is complex and consists of various cosmic rays, making it a serious threat to astronauts’ health and spaceships. Although prevented by many specific shield layers, the radiation dose inside the Space Station is still much higher than that on Earth, so specialized measurement instruments are still needed to monitor the radiation environment. This paper presents a radiation dose and energy measuring instrument, which has been applied onboard China Space Station, named as the Space Radiation Detector (SRD). It was designed for particle identification, energy spectrum measurement, and dose rate measurement of charged particles, neutrons, and gamma rays. A series of ground tests have been carried out, and the results showed that both the function and performance of SRD meet the design and requirements. Some actual measurement work has been carried out since the module was powered on onboard China Space Station as well, and the results showed that the equipment has been in working order and some real data on the radiation environment inside the cabin has been obtained already.