ALTEA: flight model calibration at GSI

The ALTEA project, an international and multi-disciplinary collaboration scheduled to fly in the International Space Station (ISS) after July 2006, is aimed at studying particle radiation in space environment and its effects on astronauts, in particular the anomalous perception of ‘light flashes’. In this paper, we present experimental results obtained by testing the Flight Model of the ALTEA particle detector in two measurement sessions performed at the heavy ion accelerator of GSI laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany. Instrument response was compared with Monte-carlo simulations to study its linearity and calculate amplification.