ASTRA-LEO (Advanced Spaceborne Telescope for Radiation Analysis in Low Earth Orbit) is a compact neutron, gamma-ray and charged-particle instrument being developed at CENSSS, University of Oslo, for the CENSSAT-1 CubeSat mission. It combines inorganic and plastic scintillators with custom readout electronics in two complementary detector units. ASTRA-LEO offers MSc opportunities in detector development, electronics, integration, shielding, environmental testing and experimental characterisation. The topic below is a potential direction, the scope can be adapted or combined according to students’ skills and interests, the available hardware and the evolving needs of the project.
Our immediate priority is the completion, verification and handover of the Flight Models (FMs) for spacecraft integration by May 2027. Until then, activities will primarily support flight-hardware delivery. After handover, the focus will shift to extended testing, calibration and scientific characterisation of the Engineering Qualification Model (EQM), which will remain at UiO as a ground reference. MSc work can span both phases, and students will not be solely responsible for flight-delivery milestones.
Project description: The project supports laboratory testing of the ASTRA-LEO engineering model and flight models. Before May 2027, the student will assist with functional tests, gamma-ray energy calibration, energy resolution, channel consistency, thresholds, background rates and verification of the readout chains. Measurements may involve the inorganic scintillators, plastic scintillators and coincidence behaviour. After FM delivery, the focus can extend to more detailed neutron/gamma measurements, temperature dependence and performance studies using the retained EQM.
Possible outcome: Documented FM verification and calibration results before handover, followed by an expanded EQM characterisation dataset.
Skills and background: Hands-on experimental physics; detector instrumentation; oscilloscopes/data acquisition; Python or ROOT; careful laboratory documentation.
Suitable student background: Experimental nuclear physics • Radiation instrumentation • Electronics