Numerical Simulation of Liulin-MO Instrument for Measuring Cosmic Radiation Onboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

Abstract

We present the results from numerical simulation of Liulin-MO instrument for measurement of the space radiation on board Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) satellite of ExoMars-2016 mission during its transit to Mars in April-September 2016 [Semkova J., T. Dachev, St. Maltchev, B. Tomov, Yu. Matviichuk} et al. (2015) Radiation environment investigations during ExoMars mission to Mars – objectives, experiments and instrumentation, C. R. Acad. Bulg. Sci., 68 (4), 485–496] [Semkova J., R. Koleva, V. Benghin, T. Dachev, Yu. Matviichuk et al. (2018) Charged particles radiation measurements with Liulin-MO dosimeter of FREND instrument aboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter during the transit and in high elliptic Mars orbit, Icarus, 303, 53–66], using the Geant4 package. The methodology for calculating galactic cosmic rays (GCR) linear energy transfer (LET) is described. A methodology for screening false signals in the deposited energy spectra in the Liulin-MO detectors and correspondingly LET spectra is proposed. The contribution of the individual components of the spectrum of GCR in the LET spectrum is estimated. The calculated average radiation quality factor of GCR using the cleaned from false signals LET spectrum is compared with the experimental results obtained during the transit to Mars and a reasonable agreement is observed.