Space plasma physics: isotopic stack: measurement of heavy cosmic rays

A stack of plastic nuclear track detectors was exposed to heavy cosmic rays on the pallet of Spacelab 1. Some layers of the stack were rotated with respect to the main stack to determine the arrival time of the particles. After return of the stack the latent particle tracks are revealed by chemical etching. Under the optical microscope the charge, mass, energy, and impact direction of the particles can be deduced from the track geometry.