Pretest setup installation of the METU-DBL project to perform space radiation tests

Satellites and spacecrafts are exposed to space radiation environment during their mission. This environment consists of cosmic rays, solar particles and trapped particles. Cosmic rays are coming from the outside of our solar system. Solar particles are produced by the Sun. These particles can be trapped around the Earth's magnetic field lines when they approach the Earth's atmosphere. These particles can affect performance and robustness of electronic components or materials used in space and such effects can be classified as Total Ionising Dose (TID), Single Event Effect (SEE) and Displacement Damage (DD). To ensure the performance of innovative components or materials that will be used in space, they must be tested before they are launched to space. Currently, only TID tests can be realized in Turkey but others cannot be performed yet. METU is building a beamline to perform some types of SEE tests. METU-DBL (Defocusing Beam Line) project supported by the Ministry of Development started in August 2015 is funded with 7 million TL. This project is conducted in collaboration with CERN for knowledge and technology transfer to Turkey. After this 10 meter long beamline is built, SEE tests can be performed with 15-30 MeV protons. As a part of this project, solar cells and Li-Ion battery of the IMECE satellite will be tested by METU-DBL.