Energetic particle monitoring in space: three-decades of experience at IEPSAS

IEPSAS in Kosice, Slovakia has a long track of experience with the design, construction, testing and operating of energetic particle detectors at low-altitude and high-apogee satellites as well as interplanetary probes during past 30 years. A review of experiments in space and a brief survey of selected results with references is presented. A simple programmable energetic particle detector MEP-1 developed for COMPASS microsatellite is described with more details. The device can be used for both scientific and application tasks at LEO. In addition to the scientific studies of near Earth environment, the experience obtained can be used in the future also for commercial satellites, where relatively simple, monitoring type of devices for measurement of radiation, especially due to the effects of space weather, are of relevance.