NEVOD: A unique scientific facility of Megascience class

Abstract

The term “Megascience” appeared relatively not long time ago and has no distinct definition. Intuitively, this term is understood as something big and certainly expensive, i.e. a concept of “Megascience” is replaced by a concept of “Megamoney”. In this paper, the unique scientific facility “NEVOD Experimental complex” (USF NEVOD), which satisfies all requirements to Megascience facilities, is described. USF NEVOD provides conduction of basic and applied investigations of cosmic rays in the record energy interval 109 − 1019 eV. Obtained scientific results are considered, and their comparison with other, larger scale detectors is discussed. This comparison shows the advantage of original approach used in the NEVOD complex compared to traditional methods of investigations. Taking into account the location of USF NEVOD in the University, the Scientific and Educational Center was organized on its bases. This allows solve two important tasks: to provide permanent operation of USF NEVOD by envolving students and to ensure their training in frame of real scientific experimental investigations. Some other questions of development and functioning of unique scientific facilities are considered, too.