
On November 16-18, the European Space Agency (ESA) travelled to CERN for a radiation effects on brand new electronics components. The aim was to test with the highest energy heavy ion beam available on the planet at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) in the CERN accelerator complex. The delivered beam was made of fully stripped Lead ions at an energy of 160 GeV/n. Particles of this energy can only be found in the galactic cosmic rays coming from outward the solar system. These are a major threat for deep space missions towards other planets, the Sun and the Moon as well as for high altitude orbits, such as GEO. One of the main experiments carried out by ESA was to assess the performances of the Intel Myriad 2 chip. This is an AI chip which coupled with camera is able to understand if what's in the picture is moving and how fast. The embedded AI is then capable to use this information to improve the quality of the following pictures.