Particle therapy and radioprotection in space with the FOOT experiment

The evaluation of nuclear fragmentation contribution on the delivered dose during particle therapy treatment is still an open point. The FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment aims to improve the actual knowledge of nuclear physics by measuring the differential cross section as a function of the energy and angle of the fragments produced when an external particle beam interacts with patent tissues during hadrontherapy treatment. Depending on the beam energy, the purpose of the measurements is dual: in the range of 150–400 MeV/u, they will be used to evaluate the side effects of the nuclear fragmentation in the hadrontherapy treatment, while in the range of 700–1000 MeV/u (typical of cosmic galactic rays) they will be used to optimize the shielding of the spaceship for long term space missions. The FOOT detector includes a pre-target region with a first plastic scintillator for time of flight (TOF) and trigger purpose, and a beam monitor drift chamber to evaluate the beam direction (necessary for the inverse kinematic approach); a magnetic spectrometer to measure the momentum of fragments; and finally a second plastic scintillator for deposited energy (ΔE) and TOF measurements, and a scintillating crystal calorimeter to measure the kinetic energy of fragments. These measurements will be combined to accurately identify the charge and mass of fragments. The experiment, funded by the INFN since September 2017, is in the construction phase. It has performed several test beams, while the full detector data taking is scheduled in the next few years. A full description of the different setups together with the performances obtained with the latest geometry studies are reported here.