Monitor of the single event upsets and linear energy transfer of space radiation on the Beidou navigation satellites

Abstract The single event effect caused by space heavy ion radiation is one of the important factors affecting the safety and operation of spacecraft on orbit. In the research and evaluation of the frequency, spatial distribution and time characteristics of single event effects, linear energy transfer (LET) spectra of space radiation play an important role. On the Beidou navigation M15 and M16 satellites, a single event upset (SEU) and LET monitor was developed to obtain the upsets of the memory device and the LET spectra of space radiation which passes through the device. Through the measurement results from this monitor, the correlation between the device’s SEUs and the LET spectra could be studied.