A Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) is what is used to measure radiation doses on tissue equivalent, or carbon based, cell models. While our team has worked to develop our own TEPC for use in our planned payload, there is also a TEPC existing aboard the ISS.

The IV-TEPC (Intra-Vehicular TEPC) is within the confines of the ISS and acts as a dosimeter/exposure tracker for the astronauts on board. This placement means it only receives the radiation that makes it through the intense ISS shielding. Another main purpose is to validate the efficacy of the shielding.

The difference between our team’s TEPC and the existing IV-TEPC aboard the ISS is the differentiation of charged and neutral particles. While our TEPC can perform this differentiation, it also does so outside the shielding of the ISS. The result is a more accurate prediction of the ambient radiation dose.

In the picture above, the circled gold cylinder is the ISS’s IV-TEPC.

The NEUDOSE mission’s TEPC design - capable of ionizing vs non-ionizing radiation differentiation.