The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at Brookhaven National Laboratory: Preparation and delivery of ion beams for space radiation research

Abstract

The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) was commissioned in October 2002 and became operational in July 2003. The NSRL was constructed in collaboration with NASA for the purpose of performing space radiation research as part of the NASA space program. The NSRL can accept a wide variety of ions from BNL’s Collider Accelerator Department (CAD) Booster accelerator. These ion beams are extracted from the accelerator with kinetic energies ranging from 0.05 to 3 GeV/nucleon. Many different beam conditions have been produced for experiments at NSRL. The facilities at BNL and the design of the NSRL facility permit a wide variety of beams to be produced with a great degree of flexibility in the delivery of ion beams to experiments. In this report we will describe the facility and its performance over the eight experimental run periods that have taken place since it became operational. We will also describe the current and future capabilities of the NSRL.