APPLICATION AND ANALYSIS OF SSNTD IN THE INVESTIGATION OF ULTRA-HEAVYGALACTIC COSMIC-RAYS IN THE DUBLIN-ESTEC LDEF EXPERIMENT

The ultra heavy cosmic ray experiment (UHCRE) on the Long Duration Exp osure Facility (LDEF) collected approximately 3000 cosmic ray nuclei w ith Z>65 and energy greater than similar to 1.5 GeV/nucleon using soli d state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD). Almost forty per cent of the sample has been analysed to date providing a subsample of 16 actinides . The detectors that are used and the analysis applied to them are des cribed together with results of the overall charge spectrum and estima tes of the actinide / subactinide ratio Z greater than or equal to 88/ (74 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 87).