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After performing a calibration measurement for the two HET-B detectors, the BGO was now also integrated into the sensor head and the two glued-on diodes were connected to the two free slots on the preamplifier board. The gain was changed to 3 in advance. Additionally two temperature sensors were connected. One measures the temperature directly at the BGO mount, the other is intended to look out of the box during flight and measure the environmental temperature.

Trigger thresholds for each channel were set to 5mV. In coincidence, the two BGO diodes trigger from even 3mV.
First measurements are running and results will follow shortly right here.

Today we have submitted our letter of intent to the BEXUS program marking our first steps to a possible participation in the next BEXUS-cycle

Our instrument CHAOS (Cherenkov Atmospheric Observation System) represents a scaled-down version of the ATHENA High Energy Particle Monitor (AHEPaM), which is designed to measure the background radiation of the ATHENA mission.

The preamplifier boards for CHAOSJunior were soldered according to slightly modified scematics of the High Energy Telescop (HET) experiment. For the detector setup of the balloon flight in September 2023, only four preamplifers are necessary and only those four were assembled for now. Since the HET preamp board has room for twelve preamps in total, more can be added at a later time for the detector setup of CHAOS. The assembled preamplifier board was tested for any short circuits and function of the operating points. The boards are working as desired and can now be tested further with attached detectors.

From September 25 to 30, 2023, the science festival “Highlights der Physik” will come to Kiel. As part of this event, we plan to fly a weather balloon with a CHAOSJunior experiment. This consists of a small hexagonal bismuth germanium oxide scintillator (BGO) with two photodiodes glued on opposite sides and two segmented solid state detectors (SSDs), which were adopted from the High Energy Telescop (HET) experiment. These HET-B detectors are placed in front of and behind the BGO and are used for coincidence measurements. In the past weeks, two photodiodes were glued to the BGO on opposite sides. The so prepared BGO was wrapped today in such a way that the light generated in the BGO is reflected on all inner sides and reaches the diodes. This BGO with diodes will be first tested in an already existing test can the following days. In the meantime, a pre-amplifier board for the flight is soldered and connected to the BGO diodes and the HET-B detectors. Then this setup will be tested.