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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 7: Poster Session Extraterrestrics

EP 7.13: Poster

Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 17:30–19:00, Foyer der Zahnklinik

TNS - a light-weight sensor for thermal neutrons — •Jan Koehler¹, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber¹, Eileen Gonzales², Bernd Heber¹, Stephan Boettcher¹, Soenke Burmeister¹, Lars Seimetz¹, and Bjoern Schuster¹ — ¹Christian-Albrecht-Universitaet zu Kiel, Germany — ²Michigan State University

Future solar-system exploration missions will have an increasing focus on the habitability of the moon or planet under investigation. A key aspect of habitability is the availability of water which can be detected by observing signatures of thermal and epi-thermal neutrons. State-of-the-art instruments which detect thermal and epi-thermal neutrons are normally heavy and consume substantial spacecraft resources. Therefore, there is substantial interest in developing small, light-weight instruments with a high detection efficiency. We are currently investigating an innovative detector design based on solid-state detectors and will present initial results.